Pokemon: Dark Road
by Zach Archer
Summary: Lucario and Tsubaki return. After a relatively peaceful year, they get involved with the Yakuza and Lucario get's emotionally involved with a woman.
1. Chapter 1

**Continued From Pokemon: War For Sinnoh**

**Pokemon: Dark Road  
By: Ratchet573  
Chapter One: Night Of The Yakuza  
**The town was alight, noisy, and busy. The main thoroughfare that led from downtown to the sea was now crowded with people, parents, children, grandparents. All struggled to get in the lines to check out vendors wares; stand in line to get some food from the various cooks that sat in front of a portable stove or grill, cooking up the greatest street food in the world. Officer Jenny's patrolled the street, making sure that the festival stayed safe and fun.  
Near the waterfront was a small area dedicated to rides. A merry go round circled in a hypnotizing display. A Ferris wheel stood beside it, it's lights brightening the whole area. Other gyroscopic rides were brightening the smiles of the children, and brightening the night.  
It was nighttime. The moon tried to outshine the lights of the Cherry Grove City festival, but failed. The stars twinkled, reflecting in the sea. It was the perfect place, the perfect time, to move closer in a relationship.  
A barge sat in the ocean, five men checking the fireworks set all about it's deck. Five minutes till they go off. The crowds at the oceanfront view, standing in front of the guardrail that prevented people from falling off the cliff face and into the ocean, were stirring, ready for the explosions to start.  
Standing at the very front of the crowd, a man with short brown hair, wearing a button down shirt and khaki pants, was down on his knees, a small box open in his hands, a ring glaring beautifully in the light. His girlfriend's long black hair was ruffled lightly by a sea breeze. Her eyes were plastered on the ring.  
She had accepted his marriage proposal and they embraced when he felt a pain in his back. Blood and bone exploded from the large hole in his lower back. He slumped to the ground as the man in the white suit and patent leather shoes threw his pistol into the ocean and ran to the dead body, collecting the ring.  
"It's been four weeks. Times up buddy." The man muttered, running with the ring in hand.  
People screamed. Jenny's ran to check out the source of commotion. The killer pushed his way through the crowd, heading toward the main thoroughfare and the vendors.

"Nice night." The man in the limousine sat back, holding a small glass of scotch over ice. He shook it a little, the ice tinkling in the glass.  
The driver wore a black suit just like the man in back. But unlike the man in back, he also wore a hat and square glasses. He also wore black gloves that clasped the wheel of the long car.  
"Never was a fan of festivals." The limo sat in a parking area inside the city. The windows were open, the sea breeze coming in.  
"Me neither." The man in back replied. "Too noisy, too many people. That's why I sent Makoto out there. He doesn't care where he shoots someone, as long as he can shoot someone, he's happy."  
The driver smiled. "I used to be like that. But being a limo driver pays better."

Lucario sat back in the lawn chair behind the grill of Tsubaki's stand on the side of the main thoroughfare. She was grilling up vegetables and fish on a stick. Zangoose was cutting vegetables with his claws as Tsubaki handed change to a man for two grilled fish on a stick.  
Zangoose looked back at Lucario, cutting carrots without looking. "You're goddam lazy."  
Lucario looked at his friend and then at Tsubaki. "Did you teach him that language? Seriously?"  
"No." She replied.  
"You should learn to understand Pokemon. Boy the stuff you'd hear from that little guys mouth. I almost mistook it for a toilet a couple times."  
"Hardy har fucking har douche." Zangoose replied.  
Lucario smiled at him.

The killer pushed his way through the crowd, knocking people down, trampling kids. Officer Jenny's tried to chase him, tried to line up a shot, but the milling crowds made it impossible to do so. The killer had thrown his weapon over the side is what they heard over the radio from a Jenny interviewing the murdered man's fiance. Probably getting rid of any evidence, just in case. It was assumed he wasn't packing heat.  
But that was wrong.  
The first firework whizzed into the air and exploded, the display started. Fireworks burst in the air, myriad colors descending toward the ocean, bursting brilliantly with ear shattering noise. So much noise that the report from a gun would not be heard.  
The killer held a pistol he had hidden in the inside of his jacket. He shot people getting in his way, the bodies dropping and getting trampled in the crowds. Jenny's got closer, but the killer turned and shot in their direction, killing random passerby in the process.  
He was nearing the parking spot where his escape vehicle awaited.

Lucario was admiring the fireworks like everyone else when he noticed a man pushing through the crowd, a pistol cocked and aimed behind him, toward the police trying to get to him.  
Lucario stood and grabbed Tsubaki's shoulder. "I'll be right back."  
Tsubaki looked over to see what he was talking about and watched as the pistol went off and an old man dropped. She nodded.  
Lucario jumped over the grill and landed in the middle of the crowd. He pushed his way through the people, jumped when he saw a spot that was empty ahead of him. He got closer and closer to the killer.

"Sir." The driver pointed a gloved hand toward the crowd next to the parking area. His boss broke his gaze from the fireworks and looked over to see the crowd parting or being parted by someone. That someone, he saw, was Makoto. He was running with his pistol pointing behind him, at something chasing him.  
A lone Lucario appeared off to the side, running beside the crowd and entering the parking area to cut off Makoto. In the crowd, Officer Jenny's were trying to get through.  
"Shit." The man in the backseat got to his knees and grabbed onto the metal box in the center of the back area of the limo. He threw it open and grabbed a machine gun and a couple banana clips from it.  
"Need a weapon?" The man asked the driver.  
The driver showed his boss a pistol, an odd looking one though. It had a scope.  
"What kind of pistol is that?" The boss asked as he checked on Makoto, who had just broken free of the crowd.  
"Precise." The driver answered.

Lucario ran at the man with the gun, jumping over a parked car and stopping in the middle of the parking lot. The killer aimed at the Pokemon and shot, but there was a click. Empty.  
Three Swellow's descended from the sky, the cop's Pokemon, and tried to attack the killer. Throwing away his pistol, he grabbed a Pokeball and threw it in the air, calling forth a Dragonite. It flew to meet the Swellow's.  
Lucario ran at the killer during this, tackling him as he reached out to catch his Pokeball. The killer fell to the ground and Lucario kicked him in the stomach. The man lurched as he attempted to get up.  
Up above, one of the Swellow's started rapidly falling to the ground, blood trailing it before it smacked into the pavement like a sack of rocks. Lucario watched it twitch in it's death throes and didn't see his adversary get to his feet and kick out. Lucario tried to duck under but the kick hit the top of his head. He stumbled backward, clutching the spot. Pain reverberated through his skull.  
And then there was a shot from behind. Lucario created an aura shield around himself just in time as the bullet bounced off. Half a second late and it would have hit his spinal column, killing him.  
The Officer Jenny's ran into the parking lot and aimed their weapons at the killer. Weaponless, the killer raised his arms. His Dragonite was still fighting above, the two remaining Swellows tearing the creature apart, cutting through it's wings and one appeared to have pecked out Dragonite's left eye.

"Shit, get us out of here." The man in the back of the limo held onto the machine gun as he watched the Jenny's cuff Makoto.  
"Want me to kill him first?" The driver aimed his pistol at Makoto. The Lucario then started toward the limousine, eyes full of killing lust.  
"Just get out of here!" The man in the back of the limo lurched forward as the driver hit the gas. He rolled down his window and started spraying machine gun fire at everyone in the parking lot. Two Jenny's went down, Makoto's head exploded. The Lucario held it's aura shield, running toward the limo as it sped down an alley to the side of the parking lot and onto a road that wrapped around Cherry Grove City. They headed north toward the highway.  
"Son of a bitch." The driver cried out. "We're in trouble!"  
"The Lucario and the Jenny need taken out. They were the only witnesses who could bust our ass. Call the assassination squads to the festival."  
"Yes sir." The driver replied.

Lucario had chased the limo through the alley but stopped as it opened onto the street. He hadn't been able to read the plates, it was dark out after all. The fireworks had just stopped and despite everything that had just taken place, the crowds were whooping and screaming, clapping and pumping their fists.  
Lucario ran to the remaining Officer Jenny and looked over at her dead sisters.  
"I'm sorry." He said. He looked the other way and saw Dragonite, dead. The remaining two Swellow's were eating it's flesh in a disgusting display.  
"What the hell is going on?" He asked Jenny.  
"He killed a man who was proposing apparently."  
Lucario looked at the killer's body. "Why?"  
"I don't know."  
Lucario pulled a wallet from the killer's pocket. He handed it to Jenny so she could open it.  
His trainer's license was what Jenny pulled from it. His name was Makoto Mikazi. His age was twenty-four. He only had one licensed Pokemon, Dragonite.  
Lucario checked the rest of his pockets and in the front top pocket of the man's jacket, found a ring. He handed this over to Jenny as well.  
"This must be the ring he proposed with." Jenny held onto it as an ambulance drove into the lot.  
Lucario looked over at the crowd. They were now coming toward the scene of the murders, interested in what took place. Two Jenny's appeared from the crowd and held the civilians back.  
"Thank you for your help Lucario. Who is your trainer?"  
Lucario smiled. "It doesn't matter. I've got to go."  
Jenny watched Lucario run back toward the crowd.

Zangoose turned at Lucario's approach. "And the cowboy returns from his escapade."  
Lucario smiled. "At least there wasn't anything vulgar in the statement."  
Tsubaki was in the process of selling a plate of stir-fry. She looked at Lucario and smiled. "What happened?" She asked, still taking care of customers. She had learned to double task pretty well.  
"That guy killed some guy who was proposing. Stole his ring. Ran to a parking lot. Jenny's showed up to arrest the guy. He was in cuffs when someone started shooting from a limo, killed everyone except one Jenny."  
"That's it?" Tsubaki asked.  
"Pretty much. I'll let the police deal with the rest."  
"A limousine you said?" Tsubaki looked at Lucario. "You gotta be pretty rich to have a limousine pick you up from a murder. Especially a limousine with machine guns in it and people willing to use them."  
"He was wearing a suit. He was probably rich enough to get a private jet out of here."  
"Ever watch the news when they talk about the Yakuza?" Tsubaki asked.  
"No."  
"Sounds Yakuza to me. Should have checked if his body is covered in tattoos. If so, you're dealing with Yakuza."  
"And they are gangsters?" Lucario tilted his head.  
"Essentially. Think Team Rocket, but more subtle. They have stakes in the government, they own every major industry in Johto. They aren't in your face about it though. They are split into families, each family has a distinct tattoo and look. I've never heard of Yakuza in Cherry Grove though."  
"As subtle as you make them sound anyone in the city could be a Yakuza."  
"True enough."

"Oyabun." The young man ran to his boss, bowed. His Oyabun turned. The Oyabun was sixty, wore a kimono. His hair was short, pushed back.  
"Yes?"  
"Mijuru is requesting an assassination squad to take out an Officer Jenny and a Lucario at the festival. Witnesses."  
"Squad one."  
"Yes sir."

Tsubaki stopped her car behind the kiosk and Lucario grabbed the grill and put it in the back. Zangoose took the stir fry pan to the car.  
Once everything had been put away in the car, Zangoose returned to his Pokeball and Lucario got in the passenger seat. Tsubaki got in, shut the door and started the car.

"He's inside of a red car heading toward town." A man with binoculars watched the car leave the festival site and drive toward the road.  
"His trainer is with him?" The voice that was coming from his headset inside of his ear asked.  
"Yes sir."  
"We'll kill them both wherever they stop. Probably a house."  
"Following."

Tsubaki turned on the radio, changed the station. From rock to the news.  
"...Sinnoh still in turmoil. Vice President Sillindra still cracking down on anyone who owns illegal firearms. Multiple assassination attempts in the past two months have led to her being constantly watched, constantly guarded, and rooftop assassin prevention groups are constantly scanning the rooftops. She has just released a statement declaring that whoever is after her will be taken into custody and taken care of as they need to be. After last years Team Rocket debacle and the subsequent destruction of the organization, Sinnoh lost many of it's politicians and much of it's income as Team Rocket backed operations accounted for thirty percent of state income. Currently Sinnoh's crime rate has dropped considerably, the lowest it has been in over forty years, but taxes are at an all time high. The populace both accepts the taxes, and hates them.  
"Disaster at Cherry Grove City. Two and a half hours ago a man was shot by a Yakuza by the name of Makoto Mikazi. The murdered, twenty-one year old Steven Johnson was proposing to his girlfriend, twenty-one year old Ashley Spraig when the assassin killed Steven, grabbed his ring, and ran for it. New information has come in from Steven's best friend who will remain anonymous that Steven borrowed money from the Yakuza to buy the ring. He had not fully paid back the debt, as his car, his only way to work, needed repairs that cost a lot, and was thus killed for not paying back for the item, the ring taken from his body. Officer's chased the man and cuffed him with thanks to a Lucario. Before they could question him, let alone get a police car around, a limousine started to drive away, a man in the back shooting erratically, killing two officers and the killer. Mikazi also killed five people in his getaway.  
"In other news..." Tsubaki turned the radio off.  
"How do you do that?" Lucario asked.  
"What?"  
"Get to the news at just the right moment?"  
Tsubaki smiled. "Womanly intuition?"  
Lucario rolled his eyes.

The sleek, black sports car carried four men. It followed the red car discreetly, driving directly behind it at some points, following along side roads as long as they could watch where the car was going.  
"We could kill them now. Be a lot messier, but more fun." The man in the left back seat snickered.  
"No. Follow orders. You'll get to test your new hand to hand moves." The man in the passenger seat stared forward as if a speck on the windshield was particularly interesting.  
"We don't know anything about where they will stop, how big the place is, how small, the layout..." The man in the left back seat was staring at the pistol in his lap.  
"Extemporaneous assassination. We don't know the conditions we'll be fighting under, but we will certainly enjoy executing under whatever conditions are thrown at us." The driver smiled brightly. His whole face was tattooed, a dragon flying high on one cheek, a blood red snake slithering up the other, going down his neck and down under his jacket, it's tail appeared on the back of his hand. He was a real piece of artwork, could be placed in a museum someday.  
The man in the back right seat stayed quiet.  
"Backup?" The man in the left back seat asked.  
"One person and the son of Oyabun." The passenger replied.  
"Worthless piece of shit..." The driver replied.  
"He's still our one of our bosses." The passenger looked at his feet. "Despite the fact he is a complete moron."

Lucario walked into the living room of Tsubaki's house next to her restaurant. Tsubaki had needed a source of income when moving to Johto, despite the fact she had been handed quite a bit of money from Sinnoh's government as thanks for what she had done. She used it to build a house, a one story place with two bedrooms, one bath. She then built a restaurant right next door. It quickly became quite popular. She served exotic liquors, was a pretty good cook, and it wasn't too expensive.  
Lucario enjoyed his new life. It was quiet, it was nice. Tsubaki was the best master he could ask for. Despite the fact he had once been an independent human, he assumed he had grown Pokemon instincts and feelings. So anymore, he didn't care that he was owned. He liked Tsubaki, she wasn't mean to him or anyone, she wasn't taking him out to show off on TV or compete in tournaments. They just lived quietly in Cherry Grove City.  
He never went inside his Pokeball, he was independent in that respect. Zangoose complained about this fact all the time, saying he should save the boss some room and quit hogging her sofa. Though he said that with a lot more f-bombs. Lucario just smiled. If Tsubaki wanted him to stay in his Pokeball, then that was fine with him. But ultimately, she liked his company. It was good to have someone to talk to.  
Lucario had always thought she needed a boyfriend or something. But she laughed at the prospect. She was a busy person, she didn't have time for that kind of stuff. Lucario just rolled his eyes and moved on.  
The little Yakuza event before had been the first time since Sinnoh Lucario had fought a bad guy. It had been a quiet year, and he learned to enjoy the quiet life. He helped Tsubaki at the restaurant, watched TV, went on trips with Tsubaki. They had a good year together.  
He walked to the sofa in the living room and sat. He closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm tired."  
They had just unloaded everything from the car and Tsubaki sat down next to him and smiled. "Let's see what's on TV."

"Ready?" The driver stood in front of the house with his three companions, two others sitting in the alley across from the house.  
Two of the men carried Uzi's. The other two carried shotguns. All four had knives strapped to their thighs.  
"Go." The driver went to the front door of the house and waited for two of his men, the passenger and backseat right to stand to the side of the door as he kicked it in.

Tsubaki set the remote down and sat back. Lucario was sleeping beside her, breathing lightly. Tsubaki would go to sleep in a bit, first she wanted to watch the latest Pokemon contest. More ten year old's fighting against twenty-somethings. She enjoyed watching the elders get beat by kids. It was almost like the older trainers were told to go easy on the kids. If she went to one of those contests with Lucario and Zangoose, she would wipe the floor with everyone.  
She was about to fall asleep, about to use Lucario's shoulder as a pillow when the front door was thrown off it's hinges. Lucario started awake and if he wasn't fully awake, he was after machine guns started going off. He brought an aura shield up to protect Tsubaki and himself. Tsubaki found Zangoose's Pokeball on the sofa and threw it out. Zangoose jumped out and ran toward the assassins. Two entered the house, one with a whole face covered in tattoos, the other just a normal looking guy. Zangoose ran at the normal guy, Lucario at tattoo.  
Zangoose rolled between the normal guys legs, cutting them out beneath him. The legs stayed standing as he fell forward, everything below his knees now missing from his body. He screamed as Zangoose executed a final thrust through the man's heart.  
Lucario kicked out at tattoo, hitting the machine gun and sending it skittering across the floor of the living room. Lucario blocked a punch aimed at his face and twirled, sending a vicious kick to tattoo's side. Tattoo was thrown across the room, unable to breath. Lucario kicked him in the head. He then turned to see two men with shotguns aimed right at him entering the room through the front door.  
Lucario rolled to the side as one shotgun went off, blowing the stomach of tattoo to pieces. Blood exploded all about the room.  
Tsubaki was missing. Oddly. Lucario didn't have time to ponder as he brought up a shield to block the next shotgun blast.  
"Dammit!" One of the men yelled out.  
The other stayed silent as he threw his shotgun to the side and pulled a knife from a sheath on his thigh.  
Zangoose ran to fight the loud one while Lucario parried a blow from silent's knife with his spike.

"So after this we kill Jenny? How do we know which one?" The Oyabun's son asked the man beside him.  
"We saw her on the news when they broke the story. Each Jenny has a patch on her right breast that has a number. She's number fifty-three. We have the geeks back home tracking her on computers as we speak."  
"There's been a lot of shooting in there."  
"Probably done."  
A man flew through the front door, a Zangoose on his stomach, it's claws ripping into his chest. Blood sprayed all over.  
"Oh shit..." Muttered the Oyabun's son.  
"Incompetent idiots..." The other man pumped his shotgun and ran across the street toward the house, aimed at the Zangoose.

Zangoose turned on the dead body of his assailant to find a man with a shotgun aiming at his head.  
"Down you stupid little Pokemon."

Lucario looked out the window next to the front door. Zangoose had a shotgun aimed at him. Despite the fact Lucario would find it kind of funny if the potty mouth died, they were still friends. He ducked under a knife thrust from silent, grabbed the man under one armpit and the navel, and threw him through the window, crashing into shotgun.

Zangoose made his move. The shotgun went off, blowing the leg off of the man who flew through the window. Zangoose tore both men to shreds, blood and limbs flying everywhere.

The Oyabun's son looked down at the machine gun in his hands.  
"Dammit!" He cried, running back to the car and driving back home.

Tsubaki showed up with a machine gun in her hands. She looked around at all the carnage, the blood on her stuff, the broken window.  
"You didn't leave me one?"  
Lucario looked at her. "Why are you pointing that at me?"  
"I'm not!" She set the gun on the sofa. "There! See!"  
"How are we going to explain this to Jenny?" Lucario wondered as Zangoose waltzed into the house.

"They killed them all!" Oyabun looked at his son, looked into his eyes.  
"You may be my son, but you are worthless!" Oyabun produced a knife from his kimono and grabbed his son by the neck, pressing him against the wall of his office. His son's eyes bulged. "No dad..."  
Another Yakuza who was sitting in the corner, watching everything take place got up and held the son's hand against the wall. The son curled his fingers into a ball. "No!"  
The Yakuza man pinched the son below his hand. The fingers numbed and uncurled from their ball. Oyabun took the knife and slid it across his son's ring finger.  
The scream could be heard throughout the Kishimoto family Yakuza headquarters.  
In slow motion, the son watched his ring finger fall to the ground. He didn't bother to look at the stump where it been attached to his body just seconds before.  
"Get out of my sight you worthless idiot." The Oyabun declared.

The Kishimoto family and Miyagi family met at two in the morning inside a small tea house. The Oyabuns of both families sat across from each other.  
"You have been brought into the limelight." Miyagi took a sip of tea.  
"It's because of incompetence. Now the whole world knows the Kishimoto family was behind the recent murders. He couldn't kill our witnesses."  
"Who?" Miyagi asked.  
"I put my son in charge and he ran like a weak pup."  
Miyagi laughed. "Incompetence breeds incompetence."  
Kishimoto stood. "Are you calling me incompetent?"  
Miyagi took a sip of tea, unphased by the man standing before him, his guards closing in. Miyagi's guards followed suit.  
"You're family has been revealed as the murderers of eight people at the festival, not including the hitman himself who your people killed. You then attempt to murder a witness, a Pokemon, at his trainer's house and five of your men are dead. Jenny's are all over the scene, they have figured out which Yakuza they belong to because of the tattoos on their bodies, and you are pretty much compromised. The police will be on high alert for your people. In other words, you're dead."  
Kishimoto drew a pistol. He had changed out of a kimono for a blue suit before heading to the tea house. He always carried a pistol with him, whatever the situation.  
"Would you point that at me Kishimoto?"  
"You called this meeting to insult me!" Kishimoto aimed the pistol at Miyagi. All six of Miyagi's guards drew their own pistols and aimed at Kishimoto. Kishimoto's six guards pulled their pistols and aimed at Miyagi's guards.  
"Traditionally friendly Yakuza's settle their differences with Pokemon battles." Miyagi looked at his friend and adversary.  
"Fine. Put your pieces away." Kishimoto muttered.  
Miyagi waved his hand and all of his guards put their weapons away as well.

It was about four o' clock when Lucario and Tsubaki were done explaining what happened to the police, the bodies had been taken away, the media had left. They were finally allowed to sleep.  
Three hours later they had to wake up and start prepping the restaurant.  
"That was a long night." Tsubaki muttered, wiping the sleep from her eyes and yawning as she walked from her bedroom into the living room. Lucario rolled off the sofa and onto the floor. "Ouch..." He yelped.  
The house was going to get cleaned up, a new door and window put in this morning. Lucario would have to watch the workers while Tsubaki worked the restaurant. He got up from the floor and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I guess we better get to work."  
"Hold fort today. I don't want anyone heading through the door or window while we're gone." Tsubaki muttered groggily.  
"Make yourself some coffee boss."  
"Already on it." Tsubaki walked into the kitchen and came back with a big metal canister full of the stuff. "Take care." She said as she left the house and headed next door to the restaurant.

"I want that Lucario dead! And you are going in alone. They have people going to fix their door and windows. Disguise yourself as one of them, kill the Lucario, get out silently. You got that?"  
"Yes father." Kishimoto's son looked at his father. He was mad, having been defeated that night by Miyagi.  
"DO IT!"

It was about nine when the first work crews appeared. Lucario watched what they were doing, eying their workmanship. One of them stood out to him though, a younger guy. He was away from everyone else, he wasn't doing anything.  
After thirty minutes of work Officer Jenny fifty-three appeared. She got out of her police car and stood with Lucario. "I'm sorry you got into this mess."  
"No problem. It was bound to happen. After the crap we went through last year with Team Rocket..."  
"You're THAT Lucario? You're the one who took down Rocket?"  
"Probably shouldn't have mentioned that. Don't tell anyone, please." Lucario looked at the officer. "Last thing I went is the media following me everywhere."  
"I'll keep it a secret between us." Jenny smiled. Lucario looked over where the young man had been standing. He was gone.  
"Gun out." Lucario whispered to Jenny.  
"What?"  
"Just do it!"  
Lucario walked over to the leader of the workers. "Did you bring a young guy with you? Been standing off to the side?"  
"No." The guy replied. "Youngest guy here is the dad of a teen girl."  
"Thanks." Lucario motioned for Jenny to follow him around the side of the house.

"Jenny fifty-three is here! And Lucario!" Kishimoto said into the phone.  
His father replied back. "Kill them both!"  
"OH SHIT!"  
The phone dropped to the ground. The Oyabun of the Kishimoto family was crying out. "What? What's happening?"

The Yakuza kid pulled an Uzi from his jacket and started spraying wildly toward Jenny and Lucario. Lucario brought up a shield and Jenny aimed her pistol at the kid. When he ran out of ammo, reaching for a new clip in his pocket, Lucario let his shield down and Jenny shot his left knee. It exploded out and he crumpled to the ground, the Uzi falling with him. He started screaming.  
Jenny holstered her piece and knelt beside him. "Who are you?"  
"ARRGH! DAMMIT!"  
Lucario noticed the cell phone lying open on the ground, a voice emanating from the speaker. He motioned toward it. Jenny grabbed it.  
"What happened?" The man on the phone asked.  
Jenny smiled. "He's dead." She said.  
"WHAT? You killed my son? You bitch!"  
"Yeah, he's got a hole in his head the size of a penny. Pretty nasty. He was pretty good looking too."  
"You've fucked with the wrong Yakuza. The Kishimoto will kill you!"  
Lucario overheard this and pointed at himself. Jenny pointed the cell phone toward him.  
"Just like you failed to kill us last night?"  
"Who are you?"  
"I'm the Lucario who killed your men and is stepping on the neck of your son." He looked down at Kishimoto's son. He was writhing in pain. "I can only assume you're the boss. The Oyabun. Come after me again and you'll find your head served on a silver platter. Could join your sons."  
"FUCK YOU! YOU'RE DEAD."  
Jenny took the phone from Lucario. "You've screwed up big time Kishimoto. You're family is done."  
"You'll be six feet under very soon woman."  
"I'd like to see you try bastard."  
Lucario looked over at Kishimoto's son. He had the Uzi, was about to insert a new clip. Lucario ran over and kicked out as he got the new clip inside. Kishimoto shot out, hitting Jenny in the foot before Lucario stomped on his neck, his throat caving in. He was unable to breath. He dropped the gun and clutched at his neck.  
"I guess he really is dead..." Lucario said. Kishimoto's eyes rolled into the back of his head.  
Jenny was on the ground, cradling her foot. She was talking into her radio. Police were coming with an ambulance. The people working on the door and window were looking around the corner of the house, into the little zen garden where everything had taken place.

"...in other news we have a front door and window." Lucario told Tsubaki as she cooked in the kitchen of her restaurant.  
"It's not over is it?"  
"Nope. We'll run into the Yakuza again I can assure you."  
"It's like Sinnoh all over again!"  
"I wouldn't say that. This is a bit different. We aren't being chased by police we have police friends coming in to check on us every day. Everyone knows we're the good guys this time around."  
"I enjoyed the quiet life." Tsubaki muttered.  
"You had to know it was bound to happen. We were bound to run into trouble again."  
"I can't believe with all the media around us all the time that nobody has recognized us as the ones who destroyed Team Rocket."  
"More than likely forgot about it. Then again, I was the only one ever on the news back then. Nobody had pictures of you and I kept you away from reporters. I could just be some random Lucario in a bad situation."  
Tsubaki handed him a plate of food. "Heroes need to eat." She said.  
"Then you better cook yourself something and join me for dinner boss."  
Tsubaki smiled.

"HE KILLED MY FUCKING SON!" Kishimoto stood before Miyagi.  
"You cut your son's finger off. I didn't think you had a place in your heart for the kid." Miyagi replied as calmly as he had the night before.  
"I want a joint effort to take out that Lucario and fifty-three. I'll pay you ten mil once it's done."  
"Sounds tempting. I have a contact, a group of assassins. Perhaps we should speak with them? They are some of the best in Johto."  
"Call them. Please. I'll pay anything. They show my son on the TV, being carted into an ambulance. Every time I see it I want to see that Lucario gone!"  
"I'll make a call for you friend."  
"Thank you Miyagi."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: Police Action**  
Blood gushed from a wound that crossed his chest from one side to the other in a perfect straight line. It soaked into his white shirt, covered his chest, crusting all over it. He tried to run but his vision was blurry, blood loss was making him look like a drunk as he made his way down the sidewalk running alongside Strafe Road in Cherry Grove City. His eyes were wandering all over, as if locked on to a fly buzzing in front of his face. He kept running into the buildings alongside the road, the cars parked against the sidewalk. He was gasping for breath.  
It was late morning, the sky was a light gray, rain drizzling down. There were only a couple people walking down the street, rushing by with black umbrellas raised over their heads. They paid no heed to the dying man.  
Behind him, he knew they were watching. He knew they were waiting for him to drop. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction. He grinned at the thought, but even that was too much for him.  
He looked up and saw a sign dangling from a wooden post jutting out over a door. "The Golden Kitchen". He slumped into the door, opened it, and fell onto the wooden floor of the restaurant. Three people were inside, sipping coffee when he fell in the middle of the dining area. He promptly passed out.

"Hey. Are you alright?"  
The kid had to be sixteen. He had black hair, green eyes. He wore jeans, his white shirt had been taken off though. He looked at the man...  
...Pokemon asking him the question.  
"Are you, um, talking to me?" The kid asked.  
"No. It's the chair." Lucario rolled his eyes. "Of course it's me."  
The kid had a sudden spasm. His legs kicked out, his hands did groggy hand motions. He looked down at his wound. It had white linen bandages over it and felt a little numb, as if some sort of ointment had been applied.  
"I patched you up." A girl, eighteen, nineteen, appeared suddenly. Then the kid noticed he was in the restaurant where he had passed out, in a corner booth. The girl put a cup of coffee in front of the stranger and sat next to Lucario across from him.  
"Who are you guys?" The kid asked.  
"Well, I believe it's only polite to tell us who you are first." Lucario sat forward and put his arms on the table. "Because you are the one who walked in here with a giant chest wound."  
"My name is George. George Hardison." The kid looked at Lucario. "I assume your name is Lucario?"  
"He's a good guesser." Lucario muttered at Tsubaki.  
"I'm Tsubaki. I own this restaurant. He's my Lucario." Tsubaki smiled. "Pleased to meet you."  
"Thanks for patching me up." George said.  
"No problem. You didn't get that from a fall or anything. That was a sword cut. It was too deep to be from a knife, and too precise. What happened?" Tsubaki leaned forward.  
"N...nothing." George looked down at his feet.  
"Kid, something happened. Who did that to you? Or should we call up the police and learn the story tomorrow on the news?"  
George looked at Lucario. "You wouldn't do that."  
Lucario looked at Tsubaki. "It must not be anything random if he's scared of the cops getting involved. Couldn't be robbery, random attack. He got that wound for a reason on his end."  
"Listen. Don't get involved. You'll only get yourselves killed."  
Lucario smiled. "I like the sound of that."  
George stared at him. "Are you fucking insane?"  
"Hey, language mister." Lucario still smiled.  
"Fine. OK, you asked for it. I'm a trainer. I joined a group of people when I was fourteen mistaking them to be some sort of Pokemon club. I thought we would train, maybe learn more about Pokemon. But instead it turned out to be a bunch of people in a basement who liked to train using human targets. I entered a room full of chains with hooks at the end, bodies hanging from them. It smelled terrible. I met the members in a room behind the meat hooks. They were all...pretty crazy. Insane. They told me I couldn't run, couldn't tell. They told me I had to stay with them. They had no phones, no television. Nothing. They were training for...something. Killing live humans for...something. They would go out every week or so. They had a moving truck. They'd stop it somewhere around midnight and start knocking out hookers, random people, throwing them into the truck. They'd steal their belongings and throw them in a big box. When they had thrown enough people into the back, they'd go back home. The people would be lined up in their garage, naked, shivering, scared. They would be lined up and there was a stairway toward the basement in the garage. They would have to walk toward it, men with machine guns standing around, making sure they go. Sometimes they would just kill one of the people as a demonstration."  
"And downstairs they would kill these people?" Tsubaki asked.  
"Yeah. They would test their Pokemon's attacks on these people. There was a lot of screaming. A lot of blood. A ton of terrible memories that still haunt me..."  
"And you killed some people." Lucario said.  
"Lucario, don't."  
"I didn't have a choice! They would have killed me if I hadn't!"  
"And so you are a murderer!"  
"NO!" George started to cry, started balling up.  
"Lucario, what the hell are you trying to do to the kid?" Tsubaki stared at him.  
"I killed an old man..." The kid started saying. "Had my Scizor cut him right up. Cut his arms off. Then started slicing him to pieces like salami. Same to a girl about my age..."  
"George. How did you get away? How'd you get that wound?" Lucario asked.  
"I bolted during a shipment. I was in the passenger seat when they were bringing a bunch of people back to their basement. I jumped out of the fucking car. Knocked the breath out of myself. The driver stopped. He had a sword, cut me. I fell over the guard rail, rolled down a hill and stopped in a muddy puddle. They left me for dead. I got up and ran. And never stopped running."  
"Where are these people?" Lucario asked.  
"I'm not going back! Never!" George curled up tighter.  
"No, you're not. But I'm going to pay them a visit."  
"Don't. They'll kill you. They have guns, swords."  
"How many are there?"  
"Six and the leader. I've never seen his face. He hides behind a mask. A white mask."  
Lucario looked over at Tsubaki. She lifted an eyebrow.  
"Did the mask have horns? Looked like a demon?" Lucario asked.  
"Yeah." George said. "I asked about it. He said he was the rebirth of a god."  
Tsubaki looked at the table for a moment. "Just when we thought it was over."  
"Fanatics. Idolized Ash Ketchum a bit too much I guess." Lucario looked at the kid. "Did he always wear the mask?"  
"No. He used to wear a hoodie. But then his idol or something died a year ago. He started wearing that mask."  
"Who was his idol before that?"  
"Giovanni."  
"Shit..." Lucario muttered.

"How's your foot?" Lucario asked as he sat down in Tsubaki's house with Officer Jenny number fifty-three.  
"Fine. It healed pretty fast. The scar is awful ugly though." She beamed for a second. "It's thanks to you that I got out of that with my head still attached to the rest of my body." Tsubaki walked into the living room from the kitchen with a cup of coffee in each of her hands. She handed one to Jenny and took the other one for herself. "Thanks." Jenny said as she took it.  
Tsubaki sat on the sofa next to Lucario. Jenny sat in the armchair next to the television. "The window and door are nice."  
"Thanks." Tsubaki replied.  
"So, where is the kid?"  
"Guest bedroom."  
"What do we know?" Jenny asked.  
Lucario gave her the whole story.  
Jenny listened to it all intently. "And you want to go with me?"  
"Preferably." Lucario answered. "It sounds like it would be pretty insane. Might be more fun to test out their Pokemon on live targets who can fight back."  
Jenny put her coffee on the little lamp table next to the armchair. "And this man in the mask?"  
"A fanatic apparently. He was Giovanni's number one fan before Ash Ketchum took over. Now he apparently thinks he is the reincarnation of Ketchum. Pretty weird stuff."  
"Become a cop and you deal with stuff like this all the time. Though not on such an organized scale. Six people. All doing an operation like this? Kidnapping, not getting caught. How do we not catch them? What day did he say they do this?"  
"When we questioned him before he fell asleep he said Friday's around midnight."  
"We're generally busy chasing leads or tagging a criminal at that time."  
"In the complete opposite direction more than likely..." Lucario sat back and threw his arms up.  
"You think like a cop..." Jenny said.  
"We have the address of the house they were holed up in. Do the police have access to satellite?"  
"Sure."  
"It's Wednesday night. I want surveillance on that building, especially Friday night. If a truck comes out, watch it. See where it goes. Phone here when it stops. Or better yet, just let me come to Police HQ and track the truck with you. When it stops, we double time. Also, we pinpoint where any problems are at. Let's see if they are playing you like a fiddle."

"I want you to stay with George." Lucario told Tsubaki Friday night before he left for the police station.  
"I can come. I can defend myself. I have you, Zangoose, and a machine gun."  
"First of all I wouldn't bring a machine gun with you. That just raises a lot of questions. Despite the fact we are good guys, we still have to follow the law. No machine guns. And by the way, why do you have a machine gun? I was meaning to ask you that a week ago when the Yakuza busted in."  
"Home protection."  
"Home protection? Pistols are home protection!"  
"I have ultra home protection then." Tsubaki giggled.  
"So, will you stay behind. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty of violence you can involve yourself in at another point in time."  
Tsubaki hugged Lucario. "Don't die. Please?"  
Lucario pointed at a necklace dangling from her neck, a sapphire embedded in a silver cocoon. He then pointed at his chest. "We're connected. You'll know if there is trouble."  
"Before you go, why isn't your necklace, you know, outside of your body?"  
Lucario shrugged. "I guess my heart and soul is connected to that necklace. Likewise, your heart and soul is connected to me. I don't understand it much. I guess the master-trainer relationship is more complicated than most people thought."  
Lucario was embraced again before he left the house and stepped onto the sidewalk. Parked in front of the house was a Tsubaki's red car, and a police car. Jenny fifty-three rolled the passenger window down. "Time to go."  
Lucario opened the door and sat down. "Let's get this figured out."  
Jenny drove toward the police station. Her radio was set on the dispatch frequency. It was quiet. But not for long...

"We've been watching the house for the past six hours. We've seen nothing going on. They have no phones to tap in to. Can't hack a computer. They are pros. If it weren't for a bug within the group who ratted them out, we more than likely would never have known. We've checked the records for disappearances on Friday nights, but we see very few people in the past year."  
Lucario looked at Jenny and nodded.  
"Dispatch has been quiet. We haven't had any problems all night but a robbery at a gas station. A couple stray Zigzagoon were causing havoc at the park, but otherwise quiet." The guy at the computer was skinny, balding, maybe twenty-five. His glasses reflected the computer screen like mirrors.  
"Activity will increase pretty soon. I want every disturbance mapped out." Lucario said.  
"Yes sir...er...Lucario."  
Jenny sat down next to the techie. "If I handed Lucario a badge he could probably be the best in our department."  
The techie looked at her. "He's a Pokemon. Though something tells me not a normal one."  
Lucario smiled. "What makes you say that?"  
"For a Lucario, you sure are good at police work. I mean, most Lucario's I've ever seen are smart, but they aren't exactly into human affairs, let alone police affairs. You're odd. It's kind of scary because every time I talk to you it's like talking to a human."  
"You know, most people think that as well. Maybe I was human once?" Lucario smiled.  
The techie continued watching his monitor. "That's sounds like a stupid fictional story some kid would write."  
Lucario laughed.  
Jenny smiled as well. "It is pretty odd. You're just different from other Pokemon. Independent of his master half the time. Yet you still return to her. You're affluent in human affairs of all sorts."  
"Maybe someday I'll explain it. But not today..."  
"Got something." The garage door started opening on the house. The garage was giant, almost as big as the house it was attached to.  
The dispatch radio was nothing but static for the past hour of surveillance. Now, the dispatcher's voice emanated from it. "Officers, a double homicide in Cherry Grove's Industrial Sector. Sending coordinates to nearest officer."  
"Shit. I knew it." Lucario got up. Jenny followed suit. "You have an officer in the industrial sector I take it?"  
The techie looked it up. "Jacobs."  
"Does he answer all the dispatches on Friday nights around this time?"  
"How the hell am I supposed to know?"  
A long truck started backing out of the garage on the satellite feed. "Track that. Also keep tabs on Jacobs. I think after this is all done, or during this nights activities, we'll be speaking with him."  
"Got'cha. Estimated time for the truck to stop in Cherry Grove is twenty minutes. Thirteen minutes to Cherry Grove, and just guess work depending on where he's stopping. Though if what you say is true, then the complete opposite is..."  
"The slums. Let's start driving that way." Jenny squeezed the techies shoulder. "Keep in touch Jack."  
"Yes ma'am."

They headed toward the slums. "You think a police man is involved?"  
Lucario nodded as Jenny rounded a corner and drove down a dark, quiet street. "Jacobs. It could be complete coincidence but in a case like this, there is no such thing."  
"Now you sound like a detective."  
"You sound surprised."  
Jenny just laughed. "Sometime you are going to tell me who the hell you really are or I'm going to set you in an interrogation room and find out involuntarily."  
"It's a funny story. Might not believe it."  
"We'll find out soon won't we?"  
"I guess so."

The truck stopped in an abandoned alley. Two men got out, each carrying a tranquilizer gun, a rag, and a lot of alcohol. "Has Jacobs called in?"  
"Yeah." The driver pulled his tranquilizer darts from his pocket. "Four each?"  
"I guess."  
"Let's make this snappy."

The radio crackled and Jack the techies voice came on. "They are stopped in an alley between Glen and Mockrey roads. Two people. You're close?"  
Jenny pressed a button on the radio. "We're close. Over."  
"I'd suggest taking the truck back to their place. Preferably drive over anyone in the garage then make your way downstairs. Want any back up?"  
"Send Jacobs." Lucario replied.  
"Just Jacobs?" Jack asked.  
"Yeah. Let's have some fun."

"Officer Jacobs?" Jacobs looked down at the woman he had just murdered in the industrial sector of Cherry Grove. He had payed a man to call into the police a murder. He had done this every Friday for the past year or so, ever since he had joined that group in the basement. And what a group they were. Despite the fact he had sworn to protect and serve, sworn all that bullshit, he still was not content. At least now he could have his fun every once in a while. Being a cop never meant shooting a bad guy like in the movies. The movies were complete crap. No, it was taze the guy. Try to restrain him with force. Never blow his brains out. And thus, he joined a group of psychopaths like himself, helped them do their thing. It was pretty hilarious that the police never picked up on anything they did. Never figured out he was actually playing them like a game of checkers.  
He picked up his radio. "Yes?"  
"This is police dispatch. You have a replacement coming over with an ambulance team. You have been requested at a scene of mass murder. We have multiple cases of first degree murder and kidnapping. You need to be there in twenty-five minutes, over."  
Jacobs looked at the floor. "Where am I going?"  
The dispatcher gave him the address.  
He turned off his radio and attached it to his belt. "Shit!" He screamed.

Lucario and Jenny sat inside the back of the truck. It had been left unlocked and apparently the two kidnappers had not found some fresh meat. They sat at the very back, Jenny holding onto her pistol. They did not speak, did not even breath heavy. They had gotten in silently, closed the door silently. Everything was done quick, quietly, and with precision.  
And then the door to the back of the truck opened and two limp bodies were thrown inside. Jenny aimed at one of the men and shot. The back of his head blew out. The other man stood stock-still, staring stupidly at his dead buddy as Lucario ran down the length of the inside of the truck and jumped, kicking the man square in the chest, snapping ribs. The man fell. Lucario rolled to break the impact of his fall and got up, grabbing onto the man. He was gasping for breath. He wore a face mask. Jenny appeared and pulled it off revealing a man in his early twenties, hair a mess, hadn't shaved in quite a while.  
"What the fuck do you think your doing?" Lucario spit out. He shoved the man into the brick wall of one of the buildings in the alley.  
"You a fucking cop's pet?" The kid laughed. "You play dead, roll over, bark and that shit?"  
Lucario punched the kid in the stomach. "No. But I do play kill the mass murdering kid who just pissed himself in a back alley."  
"You couldn't kill me you stupid Pokemon." The kid laughed again. "Come on and kill me cowboy. Let's see you try!"  
Jenny approached behind Lucario. "He's insane."  
"Aren't we all?" He blurted out.  
Lucario punched him in the face, threw him to the ground. "You like this?" The kid was bleeding all over, not dropping a tear. "Beating on the mentally handicapped? You're a fucking big boy ain't you?"  
Lucario picked him up by his hair shoved him against the wall again. "You like killing innocent people with no way out?" Lucario punched him in the stomach. "You like being beaten to a pulp?" Lucario punched him again. "You want to die so bad, meet all the people you killed, have them kill you a thousand times over?" Lucario punched him in the face repeatedly. The man never let out a scream as his face was turned to mush, his bones cracked. "Then...be...my...guest..."  
Lucario turned and went to the back of the truck. Jenny just stared at the corpse of the insane man. Lucario dragged the two people out of the truck, a hooker and a teenage boy with a green mohawk.  
"Let's go." He closed the back of the truck, left the two knocked out people in the center of the ally. Jenny had to be shaken before she comprehended what was happening around her. She nodded at Lucario and headed toward the drivers seat.

"He was dangerous." Lucario said.  
They were driving the truck down the highway, approaching the killers house.  
"I just don't know if what we did was...correct."  
"Is what he is doing correct. For all the lives he has wasted for his stupid Pokemon don't you think he is someone who should be killed?"  
"I don't know."  
Lucario shifted the conversation. "Neither of them had Pokeballs."  
"I noticed."  
"Do you think..."  
"They left them at home?"  
Lucario relaxed a bit. "Or maybe they just pool their Pokemon together. Take whichever Pokemon they need, when they need him. Because George had no Pokeballs either. They must have taken his Pokemon. He never mentioned that though."  
"He might never have had Pokemon."  
"This is more complex than I thought." Lucario muttered.  
"This George kid is as suspicious as anyone else." Jenny replied.  
"Once we get to the house things should clear up. I hope..."

Jack the techie sat back and watched the satellite image of the house, muttering into his radio. "Jacobs has no way of contacting his buddies at the house. They'll be surprised when you bust through Jenny. God, I hope this is a big enough and bad enough operation that the police chief will take us to the bar after shift. I seriously need a drink. A couple. Free drink nights are the best nights of them all." He continued muttering into his radio, not caring that no one was listening.

Jenny was approaching the house. Lucario unbuckled his seat belt and ducked beneath the dash board. "Once you're heading for the garage, hit the gas, hide beneath the dash, and jump out of the truck." Jenny unbuckled and Lucario opened his sides door a little, holding it so it was open, yet still in place, close to being locked in, but not. Jenny started driving into the long driveway and went toward the garage. She stomped on the gas and rode toward the two men with machine guns standing around. They looked over and screamed, aiming guns over at the truck. Before a shot went off they were run into at close to eighty miles an hour, snapping bones into organs, throwing them into the back wall of the garage where they hit their heads hard. And to make matters worse, the truck kept going toward them, smashing against them before going through the wall.  
Jenny and Lucario stood up in the garage having jumped out before the truck burst through the wall.  
"I'd assume that's the dark basement where we're more than likely going to enjoy the smell of rotting human flesh and beat some people up?" Lucario said sarcastically.  
"I'm glad you can smile about everything." Jenny looked at Lucario.  
"I get this vibe from you Ms. Jenny. Like you have feelings for me or something?"  
Jenny looked taken aback. "How'd you..."  
"Pokemon have this innate ability. They understand feelings better than humans. They can sense things."  
"You have the personality of a human I'd be willing to date. There, I got it out." She was red.  
"I used to be human."  
"You've told me this and I still think it's complete bullshit."  
Lucario looked around the garage. "Look up Sean Ratchet when you get back to the police station." He whispered. "I know I can trust you to keep a secret. Look into police records, maybe you can bust into the Pokemon Sciences records and learn more about me. Just keep it secret. Please?"  
Jenny looked him in the eye. She blushed again. "Let's just get this over with."  
Lucario smiled at her. "Agreed."

They took the steps, Lucario at front, Jenny, pistol drawn, in back. They descended into a small room with boxes piled up to each side. There was no door, nothing.  
"They hid the door. Give me a second." Lucario started tapping his fist against the wall. On the right wall, in the center, he found that there was a hollow echo. "Easy," He kicked the wall and the door, painted to blend in with the surrounding area, fell off it's hinges and into a very bad smelling room. It was disgusting. Whole humans, some missing limbs, some missing skin, all collecting dust. They were held to the ceiling by chains, like slabs of meat in a butcher's shop. Blood was congealed on the cement floor into jelly. It was crusted over the surface of the floor like a scab.  
It was lit by gas lanterns. Which was a wonderful smell to add to the stench of rotting, fetid flesh. Gas and dead bodies.  
Chains jingled. Jenny put her back against the wall next to the busted door. Lucario watched the chains move, bodies swinging. A lot of them. The whole room.  
And then the whirr of industrial fans hit him.  
"You guys are professionals." He muttered. He knew there were people coming from both sides. But the problem was, George had said there were only six people in this group, not including himself. Four were dead. That left two. And Lucario didn't think that the leader would show up in here.  
Unless...  
Two things came at him, one a human with a hoodie on, the other a Scizor. The red bug came at him fast. Lucario ducked under his punch and was suddenly dodging vicious strikes from the creature. The man in the hoodie tried to attack, but was shot by Jenny before he even neared Lucario.  
Lucario kicked out. Scizor ducked under and tried to kick out himself. Lucario found some chain lying in a pile on the floor and held on to it as he dodged some more punches and kicks, ending up behind Scizor. He shoved the chain against the creatures neck, trying to strangle it. Scizor started to jump, in it's death throes as it suffocated. Lucario gave it another minute before loosening the chain, letting Scizor fall to the ground, dead.  
Jenny stepped out from the shadows. "Let's get out of here."  
"Six people. Five. Plus the cop. That makes six. Then the leader...unless the cop is new. Or one of these guys."  
They ran through a door on the other side of the bodies. They were in a large, barren room. Blood was spattered about. Pokeballs sat on a bookshelf. A desk was in the corner.  
"No electricity. Meaning those fans are battery powered." Lucario muttered.  
"Or a generator..." Jenny replied.  
Lucario looked around. Nobody was in the room.  
And then he felt cold steel press against his back. "Don't move." The man behind him said.  
Lucario put his hands up. "Jacobs, you worthless piece of shit!" Jenny said, pointing her gun at the corrupt police man.  
"Put the gun down sweetie, or Mr. Lucario here goes to the afterlife."  
Lucario smiled. His tail stiffened, started to shine. Within a second he had ducked under the pistol, twisted around. His tail swung against the policeman's side, throwing him to the left wall. Lucario never really used Iron Tail much, but it wasn't worthless. The policeman was passed out now, ready to wake up to a dark interrogation room.  
Clapping. And a man in a white mask appeared out of the corner of the room. He wore a suit, the mask was exactly the one Ash Ketchum had worn a year earlier. The crazy grabbed some Pokeballs from the shelf.  
"Welcome to my humble abode. I see you met my experiments back in there. Lovely people they were. So...willing to die for science."  
"What?" Jenny asked.  
"Oh yes. They begged for death. And I gave it to them. I tested all these fine Pokemon on them. I have about a hundred here. All have killed." He started laughing. "And I documented the capabilities of these Pokemon against a human! I have so much science in my filing cabinet, so many experiments, so many tidbits of knowledge! I have done the world a favor! I have done what no one else would. Morals they say, we must follow a moral code. Fight for your fellow man, not against them. But it is a truly stupid ideal. Because it's a dog eat dog world and I am the dog on the side lines, watching it all take place. Science my friends, is the key to everything. Without science, medicine, Pokeballs, nothing would be right in this world, or even around. Science is the cornerstone of life. It is life! And yet it is wrong to throw away life for science when they are one and the same?"  
Lucario looked at the man and laughed. "Science made me what I am. Science made a lot of people I know who they are. It turns decent people into maniacs, into money hungry people with no care for others. I don't respect scientists as much as I used to. And I don't respect your bullshit sciences. You're a mass murderer."  
"But it is the Pokemon who kill, not I!"  
"And who commands them asshole?"  
"Are you going to kill me than Pokemon? Do exactly as my Pokemon do to those willing subjects in there?"  
"They aren't willing! You're insane!"  
"What if I am not insane. What if it is everyone else?"  
Lucario ran at him. The game needed to end.  
He threw out three Pokeballs, Squirtle, Treecko, and Sneasel. Jenny grabbed her own Pokeball and threw out her Swellow. She holstered her pistol. She couldn't shoot Pokemon. It was against police code. But she damn well could have another Pokemon kill them.  
Lucario kicked Squirtle into the wall. He then grabbed the creature by the head and slammed it into the wall, shattering it's skull.  
Treecko tried to attack Swellow but Swellow flew by the attack and ran straight into the lizard, beak breaking through flesh and piercing his stomach. Swellow started eating Treecko as Lucario dodged Sneasel's claws. Lucario flipped over the Pokemon and kicked it in the head, jarring it severly before he kicked it into the wall, killing it.  
The masked man went for more Pokemon but Lucario was on him. He punched at the mask. Mask dodged underneath, came up with an uppercut. Lucario grabbed his hand in mid swing.  
"Aura sphere." Inside of Lucario's hand, swallowing the hand Lucario had caught, was a dark sphere of power. When the sphere burst, the masked man's hand was nothing more, his arm ending in a stump. He started to scream.  
Lucario stepped over and pulled the mask off.  
He was just a twenty-somethings kid.  
Jenny pulled handcuffs from her belt. "It's over."

The masked kid was taken away, so was Jacobs. They were put in separate squad cars and hauled to the police station. Lucario lay on the grass, the front lawn of the guys house. He looked up at the stars. And then a face obstructed his view. Jenny.  
"Hey." Lucario said.  
Jenny sat next to him. "We're going to take George into custody. We have to. We need as many people as we can to tell us what was happening here."  
"Not too complicated."  
"Despite the fact the case is easy to understand we still need everyone involved to talk."  
"What happened to the Pokeballs?"  
"We're taking them to a place where they'll be treated. He really screwed with their brains."  
"I know it." Lucario answered. He sat up and looked at her.  
"You seemed pretty mad, all that talk about science." She tilted her head. "Want to talk about it?"  
Lucario smiled. "Look me up. It should all become pretty clear."  
She looked away from him. "I hate how you do that."  
"What?"  
"Smile about everything."  
"Stress release I guess."  
"I'm sorry, I just feel weird around you."  
Lucario looked at her quizzically. "How so?"  
"It's like I'm around a human. Not a Pokemon."  
Lucario tilted his head back, looked at the stars. "I guess we can go home now. Sleep."  
"Hell no!" The chief of police walked over. "We're heading to the bar! Great work tonight, you deserve it. A Lucario solving a murder crime. What's the world come to?"  
"I take it that's not an insult?" Lucario wondered.  
"No! Hell, I have this shiny badge right here I ripped from Jacobs shirt. Maybe you want it?"  
Lucario looked at Jenny. "I'm not becoming a cop." His gaze drifted back to the chief. "I've got other duties. I'll become a friend of the precinct if you want."  
"Take the badge. You aren't a cop, but you're gonna be called if the shit hits the fan." Lucario took the badge.  
"Thanks."  
"Let's hit the bar." The chief of police said, trudging away.

The next day, Lucario stumbled into Tsubaki's house and passed out on the sofa. She was just getting ready to head back to the restaurant when he did this. She had been concerned for him, but a cop had come by to pick up George and told her that the chief was pretty impressed with everything that happened and was picking up the bar tab that night. Lucario wasn't alcoholic, he needed a straw to even drink the stuff, but when the opportunity for free beer arises she guessed a lot of people would take it. Zangoose would be peeved when he found out.  
Lucario had a badge in hand when he stumbled in. Tsubaki assumed he had become a police person, though she learned after his hang over that he was just a friend who would help if they needed it.  
The next day, a check came in the mail for Lucario. A few hundred dollars for getting through the case. Lucario was happy. He handed it to Tsubaki and told her to buy something for herself.  
Everything turned out happy. The case was closed, everyone convicted. George was sent to a mental health hospital. The news played over the story quite a bit, but otherwise Lucario sat back and enjoyed a couple days of rest.

Jenny sat in front of the computer and checked the police database for Sean Ratchet. She got a picture of a teenager and a Lucario, followed by a brief article on their apprehension of a murderer. Nothing significant though.  
She then went to the Pokemon Sciences database and put his name in. And then the articles started flowing. Pictures of a guy in a bed next to his Lucario. Pictures of them fighting. Tons and tons of articles, tons of files. A man turning into his Lucario. The two as one. A bizarre phenomena no one could explain. And then more things came up. Escape. She found an email between a woman named Sillindra (the vice president of Sinnoh?) and Professor Oak. She saw he never appeared again after his escape from research labs. She found that his public record was gone. He was missing, presumed dead. That email she had found had been from Professor Oak's personal emails. Apparently someone had hacked in at some point and made the files somehow accessible.  
Everything she saw, everything she learned. She looked deeper into the war for Sinnoh and learned that it was a Lucario who was seen killing all of Team Rocket's officers.  
And the girl. Tsubaki. She was never mentioned, though some first hand accounts said there was a girl present.  
Jenny continued to read for hours. While a lot of pieces were missing, she believed Lucario.  
He had once been a human named Sean Ratchet. He was the man/Pokemon who destroyed Team Rocket with Tsubaki.  
And he was part of the force.  
She smiled. "If only he was still a human..." She didn't continue that thought.  
She promised to keep it to herself. She didn't think it would be a good idea to throw them in the limelight. She could understand wanting to live laid back lives after all the crap they had gone through.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: 12 Hours**  
Hour: 11  
Tsubaki threw the shotgun to the floor and ran to the other side of the room, throwing herself through the door and landing, slumped, over a railing partitioning a catwalk with the drop below. The long drop. The twenty story drop. She tried to keep her eyes from below but it was hard. There were fires all throughout the forest, guns going off all over. She ran up the stairs next to her and continued across the catwalk that was located around the perimeter of the abandoned nuclear reactor. Blood coursed down her arm from a cut. She held her hand against it, applying pressure.  
Was he dead?  
He couldn't be.  
A Charizard burst from the clouds and headed toward the reactor, a fireball growing in it's mouth. It got closer and closer. She grabbed for the Pokeball at her hip. Her new Pokemon was probably bursting with excitement, wanting a chance to shine.  
Now was better than never.  
She jumped off the side of the catwalk and opened her Pokeball.

Hour: 1  
Cigarette dangling from his lips, the Chief of Police leaned across the table at The Golden Kitchen and looked Lucario in the eye. "This is big. Bigger than the last assignment."  
It was five days since the mass murdering group had been defeated and taken to prison. Now, after five days of blissful quiet, the Chief of Police and Jenny fifty-three was sitting in the dining area of Tsubaki's restaurant, across from Lucario. They needed him. Terrorist activities were hitting home, just a couple days ago the news had been detailing the bombing of a fast food restaurant. It was from a group of anti-Pokemon people. They hated Pokemon, they hated the idea of training them to battle, and they killed trainers. They didn't kill the Pokemon as much. They had no Pokemon, instead using conventional warfare. At least, that was the general consensus since nobody knew anything about the organization.  
"Things are getting complicated with this organization. They hide. So we can't really confirm details. All we know is they hate trainers. Yet, we have confirmed reports of their use of dragon Pokemon."  
Lucario looked at Jenny. Jenny flushed red and looked down. He smiled. He looked over at the chief, who had noticed the exchange and smiled a huge, white smile. That night five days ago, it had been pretty crazy. Lucario had no recollection of anything, but the chief had a complete recollection, and a very fun story to share. He thought he would be the mature person, the person to drive everyone home, plus he knew he could enjoy watching drunk people, drunk members of his team, running around, doing stupid things. Most people considered him an asshole in this respect. He considered himself a person who knew the value of entertainment.  
He had just been sitting at the bar when he noticed Jenny and Lucario talking. Whatever they were talking about was completely lost on him because it was pretty slurred. It was like two infants trying to pronounce what their parents were saying. He could make out a few words, mostly things about how pretty they found each other to be. He never thought Jenny was capable of getting drunk. Maybe she was doing it for a reason, because you generally didn't find a straight policewoman getting drunk.  
Of course, Jenny knew why she had gotten drunk. Because she was trying to forget everything that had transpired between herself and Lucario.  
The Chief Of Police didn't know this, but knew what he had seen. The two were making out. Pokemon, human. It was pretty freaking weird. If it were under any other circumstances, he would be completely disgusted, but because they were drunk, he found it fucking hilarious. And so as he rolled on the floor, laughing at this, the two made out. And no one seemed disgusted. The bartender continued to clean a glass, watching intently as the event transpired.  
He had gotten them both together the next day, sat them down, and told the story, laughing his ass off throughout at the expression from Jenny that seem plastered to her face. Lucario just blew it off.  
Now, five days after that kiss, or tongue wrestle, that then lead to both of them passing out in the middle of the bar (they did something wrong apparently), Jenny was still uncomfortable around him. Or rather, she wouldn't admit she wished she were not drunk when the event transpired.  
"So what leads do we have?" Lucario asked.  
"Only a death threat to a Pokemon research lab located in an abandoned nuclear reactor. Ten hours from now we are to expect an attack. The researchers have been working on easier methods of Pokemon capturing, Pokeballs more reliable in a capture situation. You know, generally you have to knock that Pokemon out or beat it up a bit to capture it. They are working to make it easy to capture a Pokemon when it is just walking around with some fight in it."  
"And you want me to protect these people from terrorists?"  
"Exactly. You and Jenny." He looked over at Jenny and smiled maliciously. "Hopefully you can set aside your differences and..."  
"Shut up!" Jenny looked at him with hate filled eyes.  
"Women and mood swings, I tell ya." The chief crushed his cigarette into an ash tray and stood. "Jenny will keep you up to date, I need you guys over there as soon as you can get over there. Check out the area, stuff like that. We'll have police and SWAT take up whatever positions you feel best. We don't know how many people will be coming in, we don't know where they will or how. Just get your bearings and get ready."  
The chief walked out. Jenny turned beet red again.  
Tsubaki walked out of the kitchen with three plates of food. "I guess he left?" She asked.  
"Yup." Jenny said to the ground.  
"Well, I guess I'm eating with you." She sat down where the chief had and handed food out.  
"What's your problem today Jenny?" Tsubaki asked.  
"Nothing." She quickly retorted.

Hour: 2  
Tsubaki turned the sign over on the door of The Golden Kitchen. It now declared CLOSED in big red letters. She walked with Lucario and Jenny over to the police car.  
"It's seven o' clock! Closing at the dinner rush is not the best idea, you don't have to come." Jenny said, entering the driver side of the car.  
Lucario sat in the passenger seat and Tsubaki got in the back. "I haven't done anything exciting in a while. And Lucario's my Pokemon anyway. I want to help him if I can."  
"Sounds like fun." Lucario said. "Plus, you have Zangoose. Maybe he could cuss enough to make someone's ears bleed. That'd be cool."  
Jenny looked at Lucario as she pulled out onto the street. "What?"  
"Nothing." Lucario looked out the window and smirked.  
"How far away is this nuclear reactor?" Tsubaki asked.  
"About an hour. It's almost outside of our jurisdiction. But Cherry Grove Forest is a big place."

Hour: 3  
They got out of the squad car and entered the front door of the large nuclear reactor. It looked like a beaker. The front door led into a hallway with linoleum floors and a desk clerk, a girl in her early twenties. The security guard was asleep with a magazine open over his protruding stomach.  
Jenny looked at the desk clerk and she nodded. She was typing on the computer, whatever she was doing was probably unrelated to her job. More than likely just social networking or something.  
The security guard on the other hand, was woken by Jenny kicking him in the shin. He started awake, his dirty magazine falling to the ground, his hand going for his pistol. He then noticed he was about to aim his pistol at a cop, a real cop, not a rent-a-cop. That would net him a couple years in jail.  
"I see you apparently haven't been worrying about the fact this place will be under attack in eight hours. I should call your superiors and fire your ass...oh wait, I am your superior." Jenny smirked. "Take us on the tour."  
The fat cop stood fast, saluting. He then turned toward the magnetically locked door in-between where he sat and the clerk. She slid a card through a slot on her desk and the magnets turned off on the door and it slid to the side. Lucario, Tsubaki, Jenny, and the rent-a-cop entered the long hallway. They started down it, the rent-a-cop pointing out various janitorial closets. They then took an elevator upstairs, and he showed them labs, area with huge picture windows. They walked outside the nuclear reactor where a catwalk system had been built when the facility had been converted to a laboratory. It still had a hollow center, but that center had been turned into a mini biosphere, many Pokemon coexisting inside.  
The tour ended inside the laboratory. They were then set down in front of a computer with a map of every level. They then started planning tactics. The Special Tactics teams were coming in five hours. They had five hours to set everything up.

Hour Eight:  
The Special Tactics teams started to set up in the halls, unpacking briefcases filled with components for their rifles and machine guns. They threw body armor on, started adjusting helmets. A couple tech geeks started setting up inside of the labs, watching live camera feeds, both inside the structure and outside.  
Lucario, Jenny, and Tsubaki all slept for two hours on sofas in a plush recreation area. They would need all the rest they could get they knew. Because whatever anyone thought, it was never easy.

Hour Ten:  
They were woken up. The head of Special Tactics Team Alpha threw Tsubaki a shotgun, and handed Jenny a machine gun. "You're probably going to need it." He set two boxes of ammo for each weapon on the table. "Hopefully you don't have to use more than that."  
"And if we do, then we're screwed?" Jenny asked.  
"Probably. We're looking at a lot of violence. We don't understand how large this terrorist organization is, but we know that it's more than likely pretty big. We don't know what they are coming in on, we don't know anything. So many variables and they add up. We're generally told to defend something with a clear definition of the potential of the attackers. This time around, we know nothing significant. All I can say, is that if you pray to a god, you better start. Because as far as I know, we're screwed."  
"Why?" Lucario asked.  
"Why? Because, I just have a gut instinct."  
"Wonderful..." Tsubaki muttered.  
The head of Alpha Team left the three in silence. "Well, what's the plan?" Jenny asked.  
"Sit back and wait."

Hour Eleven:  
The beat of helicopter rotors invaded everyone's eardrums. Lucario stood and ran out first, telling the two girls to hold fort. They looked at each other and shook their heads. They wanted some action.

Lucario ran up the stairs, two at a time. His heart was pounding as he burst through a door and onto the rim of the nuclear reactor. Down below, in the center, was the Pokemon biosphere. And on the other side was a drop straight down into the forest. A forest now ablaze.  
Lucario watched as two attack helicopters stopped on the other side of the facilities rim, across from him. He started heading around the rim as fast as he could. Some of the attackers were coming in via dragon Pokemon he noticed, flying onto the catwalks all over the exterior of the complex. He disregarded them, because he noticed that the men coming out of the helicopters were setting up to rappel into the biosphere. They'd probably harm the Pokemon if they could.  
Lucario got to them as four started rappelling into the biosphere. That left the four up top, watching the rappelers. Lucario ran at one, throwing him over the side. He flew into the biosphere, screaming as he passed the rappelers. They watched their companion smash into the ground with a sickening impact. Lucario ran at the next man, trying to bring his rifle around. He grabbed the rifle, shoved it backward so hard it broke one of his ribs, then beat his face relentlessly with it.  
The next two were already shooting by the time Lucario could worry about them. He held onto their companions dead body, using it as a shield. Bullets impacted their buddies back, blood exploding from the shots. He tackled one of the terrorists, the dead body inbetween himself and his enemy. The terrorist fell. Lucario turned and kicked out before the last terrorist could shoot. The kick impacted the man's face, throwing him over the railing and down to his death.  
The last man was punched continuously. Lucario looked into his eyes. "What's your gain?"  
"Fuck you."  
Lucario beat him some more. "You reject the capturing of Pokemon, yet you have Pokemon."  
"We gain their trust. We don't capture. Wouldn't you rather willingly work for a human Pokemon? Instead of being captured and treated as a slave? They are our friends. Not our slaves."  
"I'm not a slave to anyone." Tsubaki would never treat him as a slave. He knew these people were some sort of -paths. He didn't know what kind. He killed the terrorist before looking over the railing at the rapellers. He smiled before hopping over, grabbing a rappel line, and slowly descending. The rappellers were almost at the bottom when Lucario started going down.

Jenny switched her machine gun to fully automatic and ran into the hall. The windows had been busted open and three people had rolled inside. She swung her weapon around for them, searching...  
And then she saw a small part of one of their heads sticking out of the corner on the other side of the hall. She shot, blowing that part of his head off, killing him. The other two ran out in response, shooting. Jenny rolled to the side, behind a big cabinet. Wood exploded from it. They shot until their clips ran dry. Jenny then came out and shot them both.

Tsubaki snuck behind one of the men and shot him, the shotgun cutting his body in half. The other guy turned, and the window behind him exploded as a Salamence flew through. It landed behind him. Tsubaki pumped her shotgun and shot the man as the dragon sent flames at her. She ran to the side. The flames passed her.  
She then looked down at her belt. Two Pokeballs. One her Zangoose's. The other used to belong to her Gengar. She smiled. She now understood what made these terrorists like they were. They had a bond with their Pokemon like she had with Lucario. They didn't need a Pokeball to be connected.  
She threw the Pokeball at Salamence.

Lucario dropped to the ground and jumped over the four men as they tried to shoot. He started sending aura balls at them, blowing them to pieces.

Jenny stood next to the commander of Alpha. "This is way easier than I expected."  
Jenny smiled. "It is..."

Tsubaki threw the shotgun to the floor and ran to the other side of the room, throwing herself through the door and landing, slumped, over a railing partitioning a catwalk with the drop below. The long drop. The twenty story drop. She tried to keep her eyes from below but it was hard. There were fires all throughout the forest, guns going off all over. She ran up the stairs next to her and continued across the catwalk that was located around the perimeter of the abandoned nuclear reactor. Blood coursed down her arm from a cut. She held her hand against it, applying pressure.  
Was he dead?  
He couldn't be.  
A Charizard burst from the clouds and headed toward the reactor, a fireball growing in it's mouth. It got closer and closer. She grabbed for the Pokeball at her hip. Her new Pokemon was probably bursting with excitement, wanting a chance to shine.  
Now was better than never.  
She jumped off the side of the catwalk and opened her Pokeball.

Lucario saw a Salamence fly over the biosphere, a Charizard chasing it.  
"What the hell is going on?"

Salamence, Tsubaki atop, fly beneath a fireball and turned in midair, speeding up and ramming Charizard in the stomach. Charizard flipped through the air a couple times before stopping and flying fast toward Salamence. The two came at each other, heads colliding. Tsubaki cried out. Salamence started to drop. Charizard as well.

It was six hours later. Tsubaki was in the emergency room, as was Salamence. Lucario sat with the chief of police in the station. Jenny sat near Lucario as well.  
"That was easy."  
"Because you were on the team." The chief smiled.  
"But it feels more like it was a test. How long have these guys been around?"  
"A couple months."  
Lucario sat back. He felt that this had been a test. Someone was pulling strings. Someone was after him.  
"Let's hit the bar again, a job well done." The chief stood and laughed.  
"Hardy har har!" Jenny said.  
The chief smiled. "Once again, you're just jealous you weren't yourself when it happened."

Miyagi smiled inside of his office. "We set that whole thing up to gauge that Lucario's potential."  
Kishimoto nodded. "And?"  
"Well, when we found out he was now part of the police force we thought it would be an opportune time to test and see if he was as good as you think. He's good. Those terrorists stood no chance."  
Kishimoto smiled. "Do you?" He asked the four people standing in the corner of the office.  
"Do you doubt the greatest assassins this world has ever known? We have seen the security footage. He and his companions are going to make worthy kills."  
Kishimoto looked at Miyagi. "You know these people? Know that they can do it?"  
"Easily." Miyagi beamed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Ronin  
****The Bounty Hunter Saga Part 1**  
The Ronin. The fearsome foursome. Some considered them the single greatest bounty hunters to ever roam the world, and some considered them nothing more than killers with no remorse. But to many, they found the Ronin to be artists. They walked in kimono's with two swords at their hips. One long one, a katana for outside battle. And a smaller one for indoor combat. They were very traditional, they considered themselves akin to samurai. But most people thought of them more as Yakuza. Which was true. They worked mostly for rich Yakuza families. But they still considered themselves honorable killers. They were known for putting flowers at the grave of the people they killed. They were said to be inept at everything but killing. They didn't enjoy it, they just did it to make money. They felt bad for doing it, yet found some sort of enjoyment in it.  
They were considered artists for the fact that when they killed, they killed so cleanly, they killed without leaving ugly scratches and cuts. They didn't leave blood everywhere. They killed so fast, and so cleanly, that it was considered an art form.  
The four were thought to be siblings. Nobody really knew though. There were three men, and a woman of unearthly beauty who was said to seduce her victims and then kill them as they joined her in bed.  
The three men were said to be very different in their use of weaponry. One was more into using crossbows, shuriken, and other ranged weapons. The other was said to be one of the greatest hand to hand combatants in the world. The other was the man most people feared the most, a sword master so fast, so swift, he could kill you could realize you were dead.  
They got in and out faster than you could believe. They were more akin to ninja then samurai in most cases. Very few people see them before they are killed. Only the woman shows herself in front of their target. Everyone else is quiet, hiding in the dark. They don't use modern weapons, guns and such because they enjoy the feel of old style weapons.  
They each had one Pokemon. But they never showed their Pokemon. The only account of their Pokemon, a report that came from a source nobody could say was reputable, was that they carried Pokemon that complimented their specific skills. The woman had a Gardevoir, a Pokemon that could easily seduce any other Pokemon.  
The man who used ranged attacks was said to have a Lugia. The hand to hand fighter was said to have a Machamp. And the sword fighter was said to have a Scyther.  
No cops could ever catch them. Never find a trail. The killings were spread out everywhere. And they could walk in public because nobody knew what they looked like. If they wore a kimono and their weapons, they would be suspicious, but everyone knew that was only what they wore to kill.  
The scary part about these people was the fact they could be sitting right next to you anywhere. They could even be your friends. They could even be your coworkers.  
These people did what they did. And they did it better than anyone else.

"Please, join us." Miyagi motioned for the foursome to join Kishimoto and himself at a low table, throw six throw pillows set about it. In each of the four corners of the dojo's main room that led into the zen garden at front, was one of Miyagi or Kishimoto's men. They were under a mutual friendship agreement at the moment, but that could change at a moment's notice. Typically though, families in Yakuza's that were friends had ulterior motives. Learn more about the other for a precise strike, perhaps trying to catch a girl from the other family. But this agreement was more than the men knew. The two wanted to join together. They wanted to build a giant family and then start destroying the rest of Johto's families. At least, destroy their hierarchies and putting their people in place, creating the biggest Yakuza family ever. Then when they went to Kanto in a year for the huge family meet. Kanto was a collection of the most powerful Yakuza families, but when they found that the six or seven seats reserved for Johto's Yakuza were occupied by a single family, they would be scared. They would know they finally have competition from the comparatively small Yakuza families of Johto.  
The four assassins sat down. A butler walked in, wearing a tuxedo, looking completely unreal in this room where everyone wore kimonos and were kneeling at an old style table. The butler sat a tea pot down, and set small cups in front of each of the people at the table. Each person than held the cup up as he poured the tea into the cups.  
When he had completed the task, he bowed and left the room with his now empty tray.  
The assassins took careful sips of the tea. Kishimoto and Miyagi had set theirs down and watched their hired killers drink.  
"Typically our employers just hand us a job. They never sit us down for formalities." It was the man with the swords who said this. He looked over the rim of his cup at his employer, Miyagi.  
"We have very specific instructions. We are also Yakuza and run completely different from the rich people who hire you to kill enemies in the media. We must be careful because one screw up destroys us and the cops are onto us." Miyagi had his hands in his lap and they clenched hard, enough that his nails dug into the skin and blood bubbled out.  
"I thought we were hired to take out the people who were exposing you. You are being hunted by the police." The man with a crossbow on his back had said this. A light flickered in his eyes, as if he had triumphed.  
Miyagi unclenched his fists and took a breath. "We don't want any more attention. We want the people behind everything to be killed."  
"And then it will be asked how they connect. The Yakuza incident three weeks ago comes up." The sword man said.  
"They are friends. They have gotten into a couple problems lately. They took out a group of mass murderers. They took out terrorists. They have more enemies than us."  
The sword man nodded. "And you don't think it will be pinned on you? You are that sure?"  
Kishimoto butted in. "It wouldn't reflect on Miyagi at all. You see, it was my Yakuza that got into the mess. So if anyone's head will be put on the chopping block it will be mine."  
Miyagi looked at his colleague and nodded.  
"The people we are meant to kill. Can we have some more background? Some more information?" The girl asked this. She was rather cute, couldn't be any more than twenty-one. The youngest of them. Had the face of an angel, the kind of hair that only compliments the face. Her chest protruded quite a bit as well. Had a lovely figure overall.  
"A Lucario. Our techies have learned quite a bit about him. Cracking the police databases we see that he was made a member of the force. We learn that a certain Officer Jenny was reading everything on there about him. We get the IP address for the computer she used. See she also looked at a Pokemon sciences database. And a name comes up. Sean Ratchet."  
"A wonderful medical mystery." Crossbow said. "We were going to take him out a year ago. But our employer died, his army collapsed, and we felt it would be more worthwhile to kill someone for money than for his memory." He shrugged. "I don't know if we were the clean-up crew though. By the time we even got to Sinnoh we got a call saying the Lucario and his girl companion were being held by the leader of Team Rocket, our employer. And then we heard he was dead. Killed by a Lucario and a girl, the same two he supposedly had in his possession."  
"So you do know about him?"  
"A human turned Lucario due to unknown reasons. It was in the papers, on the news. Disappeared when his caretakers house was reportedly blown up. Never seen again. Problem was, if people were not complete idiots, they could put two and two together. Team Rocket attacked the house because a certain professor, now dead, was there. So he and Sillindra embark on a little adventure to get revenge, along with Oak until Oak was killed. They apparently picked the girl up with them along the way. And then a Lucario is the cause for Team Rocket's downfall. We know much about Sean Ratchet."  
"And so do we now. And so does Jenny fifty-three, the one who killed my son with him." Kishimoto smashed his fist against the table. "They fucking killed him. That's what I want, I want revenge. I could care less about the Yakuza! I want him dead. I want her dead. Kill the girl he lives with too."  
Miyagi grabbed his companions tense shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll kill them."  
"Yes, we will." The man who hadn't spoken yet, no weapons on his body, nodded. "The money is good. We will have their heads delivered to you."  
Kishimoto nodded back. "The girl owns a restaurant. Her name is Tsubaki apparently. The restaurant should be your main target. Watch for the three targets to get together in there and kill them all. They are best friends. Should be quick and easy."  
"We don't like easy." The man with the swords said. "But I'm sure it will be far from." He smiled maliciously.

Lucario eyed himself in the mirror. He got closer to the mirror and looked quizzically at his reflection. His reflection looked back at him quizzically. Lucario pulled himself from the mirror and walked out of the bathroom and into the living room of Tsubaki's house. It was a very nice day. He had opened the windows and now sat down, cool air sweeping through his fur as he grabbed the television remote. Another lazy Saturday morning. He put his feet on the coffee table in front of the sofa and turned on cartoons. Despite the fact he was twenty-one, one in his time as a Lucario though, he still enjoyed the occasional cartoon.  
He was enjoying an action anime when the bell rang. He got up and went to open the door when instinct told him to peek out the window a bit first. He took a discreet, small peek from behind the shades and saw it was just a mailman. He laughed at himself and then opened the door.  
"Got a special delivery here for a Ms. Tsubaki?" The mailman looked down at Lucario. Lucario hated that he was two feet smaller than everyone else typically. Sometimes he was less than two feet shorter than someone, but typically he was two feet, even three feet smaller than someone. Not that it made him feel particularly insecure, it was just something he had to get used to as a Lucario.  
"I'm Lucario."  
The mailman nodded. "I figured. Is she your-"  
"-trainer?" Lucario finished. "Yes. I'm just a stubborn little guy and she can't get me into my Pokeball lest I cry for hours on end."  
The mailman nodded slowly. "Uh-huh. Can I just speak to her, get her signature, and move on?"  
"Next door. Golden Kitchen. In the kitchen."  
"Thanks." Lucario closed the door and sat back down to his anime.  
He was on edge. Real on edge. Maybe it was everything that had been happening lately. But otherwise, he had no reason to. Team Rocket was gone. Nobody wanted him dead. At least, he thought. The Yakuza wouldn't be stupid enough to come after him when simply showing up in public would equate to a criminal take down that nobody wanted to go through. Least of which the Oyabun of the family after Lucario.  
His police badge sat on the coffee table and he reached for it, stroked the golden star. There were some people who weren't fans of the cops. Maybe someone wasn't a fan of a Pokemon cop. Or maybe he was just going insane and needed to relax for a while. Which he was trying to do. But he was ultra-cautious, so much so that Tsubaki was worried for him.  
He hadn't seen Jenny for a couple days. She was probably still unhappy with their drunk make-out session. He told her it was beyond her control in a few respects. She complained that it was stupid for her to get drunk. He told her just to get over it. The chief appears seemingly out of nowhere and tells her she bickers with Lucario like they are married. Which the prospect of did creep everyone out except the chief who thought it was comedic genius. He was probably happily typing the script for his Pokemon and human love sitcom right now.  
Maybe Jenny would come by tonight. Maybe they could sit around and partake in some drinks, nothing too stiff, nothing irresponsible. Because despite the thing going on between them, they were still friends. Just...a different sort of friend.  
Drunk kissing friends.

The general reaction someone would get when signing for a package with no name for the sender is one of questioning. But Tsubaki decided it couldn't be anything too serious.  
She sat down in a chair located in the corner of the kitchen as Zangoose looked on. No orders were coming in at the moment, so it was a decent time to see what she was sent. She tore the tape off the cardboard and started pulling the flaps away from each other.  
Inside was purple velvet concealing something. She grabbed the soft material and threw it away...  
...revealing a decapitated human head.  
She threw the box to the ground and ran for the garbage can, throwing up. The head rolled for a moment across the ground before Zangoose grabbed it and threw it back into the box. He then found a note next to the box, probably fell out. He handed it to her. Blood stained it in spots.  
"It comes when you least expect it, and swiftly. If you wish for there to be no mess, then meet me at the bridge tonight at one."  
She looked down at the head. She gasped.  
The head was an Officer Jenny's.

Lucario, Officer Jenny thought as she walked into Tsubaki's house and was instantly embraced by him, was acting either really weird or really horny. She went with weird because she would be pretty creeped out by the latter. And then she saw the decapitated head in a box on the coffee table and knew why he was like that. He thought she was dead.  
Which kind of made her smile, cry, hug him back just a little. Well, more than a little. They were in a tight embrace for a moment. Which felt good. She felt kind of awkward though, he was shorter than her, almost the size of a child. But a fuzzy child.  
"I'm glad your safe." Lucario muttered. He looked up at her. "Last thing I need is people to start dying on me."  
Tsubaki watched the whole exchange with a smile. If Lucario were human they would probably be dating right now. That was just one of the major problems with Lucario. He was a part human on the inside, he still had some human desires. Not all of them, but some of them. It was problematic.  
"Can we get a positive ID on the head?" Tsubaki asked.  
Jenny walked over and looked down at it. "We can. It's Jenny seventy-eight. She disappeared last night. We couldn't reach her at home. We had no idea where she was."  
Lucario looked down at the head, then looked at Jenny fifty-three. It was...just weird. They were the exact same. Basically sisters. Identical sisters.  
"And you said this came with a note?" Jenny asked.  
Tsubaki nodded and handed the bloodied paper to her. Jenny read it over.  
"One tonight?" Jenny nodded. "We'll have snipers take up positions around the bridge." The bridge might sound vague to anyone else, but living in Cherry Grove City, you knew the bridge as the long, stone one that crossed the river. It was in the older district of the city and there were a couple buildings around perfect for sniping.  
"You guys want me to come?" Jenny asked.  
Lucario looked at Tsubaki. She nodded.  
"Good. I'm going to get some revenge."

The moon shone down on the river, it's reflection wavering as small waves passed through. The bridge was quiet. The snipers were in position, four on all four corners of the bridge. They had a perfect view of the bridge.  
A cold breeze blew through, Tsubaki's coat billowing out a bit. Lucario and Jenny stood behind her.  
A silhouette appeared on the opposite end of the bridge. It came toward the three slowly. It's hair was tied back. It wore a white kimono. Two swords, one long, one short, were dangling at his belt. He seemed completely unflinching as cold air blew past him. Jenny pressed her radio. "Shoot his legs out."  
A completely unfamiliar voice replied. "Too late for that."  
Jenny looked at her radio and then behind her at the two sniper positions. Two bodies were thrown over the buildings. She watched them drop and splash into the river below. The other two were dangling from the claws of a Lugia in the darkness of the sky. Lucario smiled. Fight music started playing in his head.  
The sword man stopped thirty feet from the threesome. His eyes were closed. Yet he still seemed to be staring at them. He just had an eery feel about him.  
"We have been paid to take you to the afterlife swiftly and without remorse. We are not your murderers as much as the gatekeepers who are opening the gate for you to join the others who have entered the gate. May that life have more remorse on you than this one." The man sounded like he was reciting an ancient rite.  
"What is this bullshit?" Lucario asked, stepping in front of Tsubaki. "Enough theatrics. Let's get to why you are really here. What do you have against us?"  
"Nothing." The man replied. "We have been hired to kill you."  
"By who?" Lucario asked.  
"You will feel no pain." The swordsman drew his large sword and ran forward lightly, his steps making no sound. His sword struck out at Lucario's neck. Lucario brought up one of his spikes to deflect the strike. The swordsman then turned and came around with the sword, hoping to cut Lucario in half from the stomach. Lucario flipped away from the attack.  
Jenny pulled her pistol and shot at him. The swordsman turned and swiped his sword. The bullet was bisected and fell to the ground in two pieces.  
"Holy crap." Lucario muttered.  
The swordsman went for Jenny. Lucario sent an aura ball at him. It smacked into his side and threw him off his feet. But he got up, no blood, no scratches.

There are points where random events occur. And that night at one o' clock, as Lucario and the mystery swordsman were exchanging blows, a helicopter flew over the river and toward the bridge. The helicopter was government.  
And when the swordsman noticed that, he ran for it, escaping into the darkness as if he were part of it.  
The helicopter landed on the bridge in front of the threesome. They rose their hands against the wind being stirred about by the blades.  
And out of the helicopter came a familiar person. At least, for Lucario and Tsubaki.  
"I came as soon as I could." The woman smiled.  
"Is she...?" Jenny asked.  
"Former." The woman replied.  
Before they could introduce Jenny to the woman Jenny's radio got static, and then a voice came over it.  
"Sean Ratchet. You will die. When you least expect it, they will stand over your dead body! Don't sleep, don't stand around shadows. Or you will die!"  
Lucario wasn't as scared by his threats as the fact he knew his name. Then again, Lucario knew him as well.  
"I killed your son. And your mad. But you can't be a man and face me. You hide with your little assassins. Make sure they know that wherever it is they attack me, they will be killed before they can do anything to anyone. I'll make sure and have fun with you though. Break your fingers and toes one by one. Maybe break some body parts on you like your son. I won't kill you like your son until a little later though, I'll leave you on the floor in pain for a while."  
"YOU WILL DIE! THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR HOURS WILL BE HELL FOR ALL OF YOU!"  
"I would say the same thing to you, but I'm not much into theatrics." Jenny broke off contact on her radio then watched the helicopter lift off and the woman, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder, approach.  
"I hope you got a place I can stay."

It was in The Golden Kitchen that Tsubaki, Lucario, Jenny, the chief, and Sillindra sat down. Everyone sat back for a moment. It was the chief who burst out.  
"So we have a group of assassins hired by a Yakuza, we have the vice president of Sinnoh..."  
"Ex." Sillindra muttered.  
"Ex-vice of Sinnoh coming by at a convenient time to save the day. What's next?"  
"Before we get into that, I'd like to know why you are the ex-vice Sillindra." Lucario looked at her face for a moment. She stared back.  
"You...you're different." She cocked her head. "You aren't...the same."  
"It's been a year." Lucario smiled. "I might have changed. The normal life might have done it to me."  
"You might be getting softer." Sillindra smiled.  
"I hear you can't get soft. Assassination attempts and such." Jenny butted in.  
Sillindra looked at her, maybe mad that she butt into the conversation. "Yeah. That's why I resigned and left without anyone knowing. I'm laying low."  
"By coming here in a fucking military chopper?" The chief asked. "That's typically not low profile."  
Tsubaki had just gotten coffee and set it down with a couple cups. Lucario got the first cup. One of the more embarrassing moments of the day was when he had to drink out of a straw. Because he didn't have the most mobile digits. His fingers didn't move much and were too big for the handles of a mug anyway. He thanked Tsubaki and everyone else poured themselves a cup.  
"Is there an extra room at your house Tsubaki?" Sillindra asked.  
"Yeah, the guest bedroom."  
"Lucario doesn't sleep there?"  
"No. He's a couch dweller." Lucario nodded at Tsubaki.  
"Thanks." Sillindra said.  
"Can we get back to the investigation of four snipers dead? The fact we have assassins on the loose?" The chief pulled a cigar from his inside coat pocket and procured a lighter from his pants. He let the smoke out of his nostrils.  
"The swordsman wore a kimono, had his hair tied back. That's all I can say. The others were not in sight. Though I did see a Lugia in the air. It killed two of the snipers." Lucario sipped his coffee.  
And as he downed his coffee, the chief nearly spit his out. "Holy shit. We're dealing with the fucking Ronin?"  
"Ronin?" Jenny and Lucario asked at the same time. They looked at each other. A small smile started to curl on Lucario's face.  
Sillindra noticed the exchange. "Have I missed anything. You know...um..."  
Jenny shook her head. "No."  
The chief smiled. "Yes."  
Tsubaki looked around. "Um, what?"  
"Nothing!" Jenny hurriedly pouted.  
Lucario just sat with that annoying smile.  
"I won't ask. Sorry." Sillindra looked down at her coffee mug.  
"Yeah..." Jenny looked down at her own coffee.  
"Anyway, the Ronin." The chief said, throwing the subject before away. "The Ronin are known for quite a few things. First of all, not being so pleasant as to run and leave the people they are supposed to kill to come to the police and send a formal complaint. They are renown for not getting caught. Ever. Getting in, getting out. Without a trace. They have supposedly been at it since they were teenagers. They wear the outfit of a samurai, yet are more akin to ninja. Though from the account of the nights events you have given me I assume that they acted more like samurai."  
"So these guys are known, yet we can't catch them?" Jenny asked.  
"Basically. We don't actually know their identities. Describe the man's face."  
Jenny thought for a second. "He had his eyes closed the whole time! As if he was blind."  
"And that's it?"  
"Black hair. Um..."  
"Exactly." The chief sat back. "Whether you have seen them or haven't we can't actually get a real picture of them. And with his eyes closed, that makes it so much harder. When he opens them, then he will look completely different."  
Lucario kind of laughed. He was on par fighting a guy with his eyes closed. That felt pretty pathetic.  
Sillindra looked around. "I'm glad I showed up when I did. From one assassin group to another..."  
"I'll explain everything tomorrow morning." Lucario stood. "I'm going to bed."  
"Not afraid of his threats at all? Don't sleep, don't stand in shadows?" Jenny looked kind of worried.  
"I'd suggest you come over as well Jenny." The chief snickered a little at this. Jenny's cheeks flushed. "You can take the sofa. Chief, I'd get your ass out of here. I'll know if there is trouble. I have better hearing than a regular human." Lucario started to walk away. He left the restaurant and headed next door.  
The chief stood next and started to leave. "See you folks in the morning I hope. I want this to be over and done with soon. The last thing Cherry Grove City needs are a bunch of fucking assassins roaming around."  
When the door shut, there were three girls sitting together.  
"Lucario seems...laid back..." Sillindra said.  
"He's been pretty on edge lately. I am sure this little event isn't helping anything either." Tsubaki looked down. "I feel bad for him. He was happy for a year, and then this comes up and next thing you know he's fearing for his life."  
"He doesn't look it or sound it." Sillindra replied.  
"He hides it." Tsubaki replied. "He's good at it."  
Jenny stretched. She looked back at Tsubaki. "Thanks for letting me bunk with you."  
"It's no problem." Tsubaki smiled.  
Jenny left.  
"You're lucky to have him." Sillindra muttered  
"You really like him don't you?" Tsubaki looked at Sillindra.  
"But he's...a Pokemon. That's the problem. I can tell he likes me too though. He has human yearnings, feelings. But he still has the shell and most of the instincts of a Pokemon."  
"There are problems running through his brain." Tsubaki looked at Sillindra. "He can't do human things anymore. But should he leave behind his humanity and his human yearnings, or keep them? And what if he never had been a Lucario? This mess would never have happened, he would be a weak nobody living with a bunch of Lucario's and pretty much believing he was one. But it would be alright to have human lust and such. It's problematic. And he knows it."  
"He's more complicated than anybody I've ever known." Sillindra muttered. "And what is his thing about violence? Haven't you ever noticed that? He loves to fight. He sounds like a wise-guy any time outside of a fight. In a fight, in an intense situation, he is a graceful killer. Better than even a Lucario. Have you ever thought that maybe that story about being raised by Lucario is bullshit? Have you ever thought that it wasn't Oak they were after?"  
"Team Rocket was after Oak though. They publicly executed him."  
"Maybe they wanted Lucario. Because of some other reason..."  
Tsubaki's eyes narrowed. "You are saying that Lucario, as a human, was not raised by Lucario?"  
Sillindra nodded. "I'm saying he is hiding a lot of things about his past. I just feel it. You don't become a Lucario and just suddenly start killing people like a death machine. Despite the fact he has a Lucario's instincts, have you ever seen Lucario fight hand to hand like he does?"  
"No." Tsubaki looked down at the table again.  
"He's hiding something. He's got good intentions in hiding it though. I know it. There must be something haunting him. Maybe he's on edge because this is reminding him of his past."  
Tsubaki looked at Sillindra. "I don't care." She stood. "We all have things about our pasts we want to forget or hide. It's typically better to keep it quiet so that you don't hurt your friends."  
Sillindra stood, a pistol now in her hand. She aimed it at Tsubaki. "I've always had doubts about you."  
Tsubaki looked over her shoulder. "If you're going to stay at my place, I'd not aim weapons at me. We don't know you're true intentions behind taking in Lucario when he was a human. We don't even know anything about what you were really studying as a researcher."  
"And nobody knows about why you seem so smug, so good under pressure. Typically someone with a gun aimed at their head break down. You seem pretty happy about it. You hide more than any of us."  
Tsubaki smiled. "And it's better off that way. If you don't want that gun shoved down your throat in the next twenty seconds, I'd lay it down and come over."  
Sillindra hesitated for a moment. She then lay the pistol down.  
"It wasn't even cocked." Tsubaki said over her shoulder as she left.  
"Who the hell are you?" Sillindra yelled after her.  
"Who are you? That's a better question. And why did you show up when you did? And why did you resign from your position when assassins have been after you for the past year. Lucario is asking all the same questions I can tell for sure."  
Sillindra grabbed her bag. "He's asking questions about you too."  
"He was a year ago. But I came clean. He knows why I'm the way I am. Warzones are my natural habitat. And while I may not look it, I can kill you if I have to."  
Sillindra went for the gun. But it wasn't there. She then noticed Tsubaki's Zangoose standing in the corner with the big piece of silver in it's hands.  
"Let's go Sillindra." Tsubaki and Zangoose left the restaurant.

Lucario lay on the floor, a pillow and blanket thrown out for him. He lay under the blanket, and reclined his head against the pillow, looking at the ceiling. Jenny lay on the sofa next to him. He sighed.  
"What's it like?" Jenny asked. Lucario looked over at her, he had thought her asleep.  
"What?" Lucario asked.  
"Being a Pokemon."  
Lucario reclined his head back again. "Sometimes you wish you were human again. But I like being a Pokemon. I'm more powerful, I'm a cute little fuzzy thing which means girls like me."  
Jenny coughed out a laugh.  
"What?" Lucario asked.  
"You like being the center of attention? The cute little fuzzy center of attention? You didn't seem like the kind of person who would like teenage girls wanting to pet you at a mall."  
"If you were a Pokemon wouldn't you like teenage boys petting you at a mall?"  
"Um..."  
"Yeah." Lucario smiled.  
"What if those assassins were in here, listening to this all?" Jenny asked. She let out a little laugh. "They'd probably be pretty creeped out."  
"They aren't stupid. They're not going to come to kill us tonight. They'll kill us when we least expect it. So tomorrow morning when we head out to do something, we are going to unsuspectingly be murdered. The problem is, we know they'll do that." Lucario rolled to the side. "I need my sleep, I'm a one year old Lucario."  
Jenny looked over at his limp form. "How do you do anything with those spikes?"  
"You get used to it." Lucario closed his eyes.

That morning Tsubaki awoke early and grabbed Sillindra to go teach her how to work in the kitchen. They started to walk out when they saw, on the floor, were two figures.  
Jenny and Lucario lie back to back.  
"Seriously, have I missed something?" Sillindra asked.  
"Well, whatever you missed I've been missing also."

Lucario awoke after Jenny. Jenny didn't say anything about her slipping under his blanket and laying next to him. Lucario stretched and stood. He grabbed his blanket and pillow and threw them onto the sofa with Jenny's blanket and pillows. He'd worry about putting those away later. Right now, he was hungry.  
Lucario and Jenny walked over to the restaurant. The whole time Jenny was looking at her feet, smiling. She didn't know what ultimately made her do what she did, and she was glad Lucario didn't know, though Tsubaki and Sillindra now knew. Maybe they'd keep quiet or blurt it out. Either way she didn't care.

Breakfast was over quick enough. Tsubaki and Sillindra kept quiet about what they had found on their floor, assuming it would be better to just let it go.  
That's when Jenny started acting...different.  
"Tsubaki, do you mind if me and Lucario go to the museum? Maybe have lunch downtown?"  
Lucario looked at her quizzically.  
"Sure." Tsubaki said. This confirmed to her that something was going on between them. Lucario must not know it though, because the look he gave her was that of complete confusion. Tsubaki laughed on the inside. It was not the best idea to split up when assassins were after them, but Tsubaki thought that her and Sillindra would be fine. And Lucario could deal with anyone.  
The two left, Lucario still wondering what the hell was going on. Tsubaki just waved after them.

The museum was quiet. There were a couple people around. Otherwise, Jenny and Lucario were completely alone in the cavernous halls of the galleries.  
"What's up?" Lucario asked as they sat down in front of a forty foot tall painting of a surreal desert. Lucario scanned the artwork, enjoying the various styles at play.  
"Is there a way to turn you human?" She asked.  
Lucario looked at her. "No. Nothing I've heard of. Have you heard of anybody other than me turning into a Pokemon? I don't think the cure is something scientists give a damn about working on."  
"Do you want to be human again?"  
"Sometimes. Like right now." She smiled at that. "But ultimately, I burned my human body. I've basically stranded myself in this body. Which doesn't bother me really. It makes it difficult to love. But the fact of the matter is that the closest attachment I can have with any human is Pokemon and trainer. Unless I meet a nice Lucario girl. But if that happened..." He shrugged. "I don't even think that's possible. How many Lucario's do you see walking around, let alone girls?"  
Jenny grabbed his hand. "You're the most difficult person I know."  
"Pokemon." Lucario corrected.  
They stared at each other for an awkward second before Lucario threw her to the floor and rolled underneath a vicious kick from a man in a kimono. Jenny saw this and then watched as Lucario jumped on the bench. He then lunged for the assassin. He landed on all fours on the floor, using his momentum to roll to his feet and block a kick from the man. The man then hopped up with his foot on the ground and came around with that foot, heading for Lucario's head. Lucario ducked under and sidestepped behind the assassin.  
The assassin's elbow raced backward toward Lucario's nose. Lucario grabbed his elbow and punched toward the back of his enemies neck.  
The assassin suddenly fell backward onto Lucario as Jenny shot. The bullet flew over the assassin's head and hit a piece of art behind him. Lucario used his feet to throw the assassin off him as a Machamp was released from his Pokeball and sent after Jenny. Lucario got up and went to protect her, when a kick impacted his stomach. He cried out and spit flew out of his mouth. He looked over at his attacker and smiled, spitting onto the ground.  
The assassin came at him, this time flipping over Lucario, or so Lucario thought. Halfway through the flip, right over Lucario's head, the man's foot lashed out. Lucario sidestepped and the man fell on both hands and one leg. The other leg was outstretched like he was about to take off during a track sprint.  
Lucario noticed that Jenny was shooting at Machamp. Lucario then noticed that gold was flashing toward his face.  
He ducked under the punch of the assassin, now wearing brass knuckles. Lucario then tackled him as his tried to reel his hand in from the punch. Lucario then grabbed him from behind with one hand, by the neck with the other, and piledrived him into the stone bench. The assassin screamed as he went completely through the bench. But yet...he still laughed and got up from the attack that should have snapped his spine.  
Security guards were showing up on both sides. The assassin had his Machamp return to it's Pokeball and left a scroll on the ground as he disappeared into a dark corner of the room. Lucario chased after and then laughed as he realized that they were not as advertized, exactly as the chief said. They were more akin to ninja than samurai.  
The Ronin. Roaming samurai for hire.  
How that guy fought so well in a kimono though. Hand to hand combat was much better when you had something tight on, when you didn't wear cavernous clothing that could restrict your movements.  
Lucario looked at Jenny who was being helped up by the security guards. Lucario ran over and picked up the scroll before the security could notice it. He clasped it in both hands, hiding it and then getting behind Jenny, slipping it in her back pocket so nobody would notice.  
"We're on the case already. We were given a tip he was here so came." Jenny was making up a story to explain why the assassin showed up, why they were there. It took about five minutes before Lucario and Jenny walked out.  
"I promised lunch, didn't I?" Jenny asked.  
"Yeah." Lucario was rubbing his stomach where he had gotten kicked. He felt like crap now.  
"Let's go somewhere with stiff drinks." She muttered.  
"And then get attacked again?" Lucario half laughed, then cried out in pain. "Shit. That guy was powerful."  
"I'm going to call Tsubaki and make sure everything is fine there." Jenny pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Lucario grabbed the scroll from her back pocket.  
"What the hell are you doing?" She asked as he went behind her.  
He waved the scroll in front of her. "The assassin left a present."  
It was one of those scrolls you have to roll out, like the samurai used. The letters were done with masterful strokes of a paintbrush, calligraphy at it's best. He read the scroll and looked at Jenny. "Directions. To the bad guys headquarters. Tonight at one he wants to see us."  
"Who?" Jenny asked.  
"Kishimoto. He's invited us to have tea. And probably to fight his assassins in his home turf."  
"We are going to a Yakuza headquarters by ourselves?"  
"Eh, what could it hurt?" Lucario shrugged and smiled. He was still grabbing his stomach. "We're gonna have to kill these people eventually. Why not tonight?"  
They stopped in front of a pub. It was a small little place with an iron gate surrounding a little outside patio. Inside, it was adorned with random paraphernalia. They walked inside.

"Tonight will be good fun. Quite, explosive." Kishimoto smiled.  
Miyagi stood from his place on the opposite side of the table. "Good luck. I have my own problems to attend to."  
"Miyagi. Could you spare a few men? Tonight will be the greatest Yakuza action of the past twenty years in Johto."  
"I like the sound of that." Miyagi smiled. "I'll have a few men come over later tonight."  
"Thank you."  
"I can't wait to see what happens." Miyagi smiled. "I hope that all four of the assassins together have a better chance at taking down that Lucario."  
"Plus all my men."  
"I don't think they stand a chance." Miyagi walked out of the room, leaving Kishimoto to his thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Vagabond  
The Ronin Saga Part 2**  
"Who are you?" Kishimoto walked toward the helicopter, wearing a tuxedo, one hand on his gun. The helicopter had randomly landed on his driveway, and he typically did not enjoy people doing that. Especially random people with two heavily armed guards wearing body armor and carrying short, portable machine guns.  
The man who walked toward Kishimoto from the helicopter wore a black and red kimono, not unlike the white and green kimono's worn by the Ronin. This guy felt a lot like the Ronin, he had the same vague look in his eyes, the same stern expression as if trying to hide what he truly felt.  
The only problem was, he looked older. A lot older.  
"My name is Amano. I am considered Father by many as well."  
"You don't mean..."  
"Yes. I am the father of the Ronin."  
Kishimoto looked at the sword on the father's hip.  
"I assume you are here to see your children?" Kishimoto asked.  
"No, no, no." He replied. "I am here to kill them."

Jenny and Lucario sat in the living room of Tsubaki's house. They looked at the floor awkwardly, shuffling their feet. It was like they were teenagers at prom, bashful about kissing, yet wishing some divine force would push them together to do it. It continued for a long time before Jenny grabbed him and kissed him. There was an awkward moment of getting the feel of it before they hit their stride. It went on for maybe two minutes before someone knocked on the window.  
The chief of police danced around and laughed. Jenny looked at him for a moment. "Where the hell did he come from?"  
Lucario stood and opened the front door. The chief started to back away but Lucario grabbed his arm. "Get in here."  
"A threesome? With a Pokemon as well? I'm liking this!"  
Lucario smiled before throwing him into an armchair. The chief watched the Pokemon sit next to Jenny.  
"No need to be so rough!" The chief laughed.  
"What the hell is your problem?" Jenny asked. "Have you been stalking us since..."  
"Yeah, pretty much." The chief smiled. "I should tell you that it is not an opportune time for office romances. But nonetheless you guys were pretty hot. I never thought Pokemon kissing humans would be so not disturbing and repulsive."  
Lucario looked at him.  
"Jenny, can you explain the situation to our friend here while I get us some food."  
"Yeah, I'll make sure he knows about tonight."  
The chief's eyes lit up. "So the threesome..."  
"Oh for fuck's sake." Lucario left.

It was midnight, Lucario, Jenny, Tsubaki, and Sillindra sitting in the living room, mentally preparing themselves for whatever was about to go down that there was a soft knock at the door, barely heard over the roar of the television. Lucario stood and opened the door though, his hearing a lot better than a humans. On the other side was a man in a tuxedo, cuffed, wearing a cavernous black hat, and slick black shoes. Behind him, Lucario noticed a limousine.  
"Is your party ready sir?" The chauffeur asked in a cultured accent.  
"Is this some sort of formal occasion?" Lucario asked, wondering what was going on.  
"Sir, it is a celebration. You were given an invitation. If your party is not prepared I would suggest they do so now so we are not late. Please wear appropriate attire for a party featuring many wealthy people. And a suggestion for the well being of the police woman. I would make sure to wear something other than your uniform."  
"Five minutes." Lucario said. The chauffeur nodded and Lucario closed the door, putting his back against it. "A party? What the hell is going on?"  
Tsubaki and Sillindra got up. "Does this mean a dress and heels?" Tsubaki asked.  
Lucario nodded. "Jenny, you look about Tsubaki's size. Maybe she has something you can borrow?"  
Tsubaki nodded and the two went toward her bedroom. Sillindra went to the guest room.  
Lucario turned off the TV and sat back on the sofa for a couple minutes while the women got dressed.  
A party. Dresses and high heels. Don't wear your police uniform.  
Yakuza, a group of assassins.  
Nothing really added up in his head. Maybe a deathday party or something stupid and overly dramatic like that? Those assassins seemed to be into theatrics. That would be something straight out of an anime or something silly like that.  
He reclined back and looked at the ceiling.

He had to admit that Jenny looked good in a red dress and heels. She looked...different...without her uniform. Her uniform was good looking on her, but this dress was great. Lucario led her to the back of the limousine and helped her inside.  
"If we were to go on a date," Jenny asked as Lucario got in, "would it be like this?"  
Lucario smiled. "What, a date to a Yakuza party?"  
Jenny punched him lightly. "No. I mean the limousine."  
Lucario hugged her. "I would do that."  
Jenny smiled a bright, white smile. "You're a good boyfriend."  
Tsubaki shuffled inside and looked quizzically at the two. Sillindra got inside and looked at the two as well. "Um, he's a Pokemon."  
Jenny looked at her angrily. "He's a human on the inside though."  
"He's a Pokemon on the outside, and to anyone else that's all that matters."  
"But to me, what he is on the inside matters more." She kissed Lucario.  
The chauffeur watched on, disgusted.

The limousine stopped in a circular driveway, in front of a red carpet that led up a small set of stairs into a huge garden, boxed in by a dojo-like building.  
Lucario got out first, grabbing Jenny's hand and getting her out. There were spotlights to each side of the red carpet, and people in jackets and ties, platters with champagne glasses sitting on them. People walked up the stairs, glamorous people, wearing the best dinner jackets and dresses. It was one in the morning, and the police didn't find this lit up, eyesore and conflagration of the rich suspicious?  
Jenny held Lucario's hand as they walked up the stairs, despite the looks of disgust and amusement sweeping across the faces as they passed. Tsubaki and Sillindra followed after, eyes darting to and fro, searching for an assassin or assailant.  
Everyone's guards had to be up. But with Jenny and Lucario staring at each other dazedly, they were susceptible to anything.  
Tsubaki had never seen Lucario like this though. Jenny had fallen in love not with a Pokemon, but the human inside, which was kind of deep. And kind of cute. And also showed she really loved him. But to everyone else, it was weird. Tsubaki didn't find it as weird as Sillindra apparently did. Maybe they were meant for each other. Maybe he would find a way to be a human again and they would get married. Or maybe Tsubaki would have to sever her bond with her Pokemon and allow Lucario and Jenny to connect.  
She looked at the red carpet. It was a sad thing. She didn't want to give Lucario up. She liked his company, liked to have him around. He was a better person than people. He fully accepted his fate as a Pokemon and now lived out life not confused between being a human and Pokemon. He balanced both acts.  
The four entered a courtyard, a raised platform at the forefront, a podium standing atop it. There were balloons tied to rocks, rocking in the wind.  
As they approached, they noticed people coming from everywhere, people in white suits and reptile skin shoes. They came from cars, from the dojo. They joined the milling crowd, not quite fitting in with everyone else. They had hard looks on their faces, as if they were steeling themselves for a fight.  
Which, everyone in Lucario's party assumed, was the case.  
The door behind the platform slid aside and a man in a black suit strode out. Accompanying him was an older gentleman, a bit shorter, also wearing a smart business suit. They stopped behind the podium and looked out at the crowd as the small bands of gossipers and drinkers came together.  
Kishimoto was the taller, younger man. The other one...  
Lucario locked eyes with Kishimoto for just a moment.  
"I have gotten the Yakuza's of Kanto together for one reason tonight." Kishimoto smiled warmly. "Because myself and Miyagi are unifying our Yakuza!"  
The Yakuza people in the crowd must have been from Kanto. They were staring suspiciously at the two men at the podium.  
"Tonight we have signed, in blood, a pact. We are officially a family. And tonight, we wish to demonstrate our union."  
The doors surrounding the courtyard slid open. Lucario threw Jenny to the ground and got over her. Tsubaki and Sillindra dropped to the ground as well. Uzi's exploded as Kishimoto's new, unified Yakuza killed many of Kanto's members.  
"A FUCKING GANG WAR!" Lucario screamed amidst the loud shots that were being shot from both Kanto and Sinnoh's Yakuza.  
"WE'VE GOT TO STOP THIS!" Jenny screamed.  
Lucario grabbed her hand and ran toward the podium. They leapt atop it and ran into the dojo as the gang war escalated, more and more screams joining the chorus.  
Sillindra and Tsubaki followed.

Kishimoto stopped in a large room, smiling maliciously as Lucario and Jenny ran in.  
"What the hell is going on?" Jenny held a pistol from her thigh holster, aiming it at the Oyabun.  
Kishimoto laughed. "The Kishimoto and Miyagi families have merged and we are now going to destroy Kanto's Yakuza! Tonight, all our enemies die! Including you!"  
Lucario ducked as the hand to hand combat assassin appeared out of nowhere, knuckledusters glaring in the light. The assassin kicked out and Lucario grabbed his foot, aiming a blow at his crotch. The man blocked it with his hand then brought his other arm down on Lucario's foot. Lucario fell to the ground before the blow could land, the assassin flying up in the air, letting go of the foot and hitting the ceiling.  
Lucario looked around. Jenny had gone after Kishimoto.  
"Shit." Lucario feinted right and came back with an uppercut. The assassin brought his knee up, trying to smash into Lucario's elbow. Lucario felt the impact and cried out as he fell to the ground, clutching his arm.  
The man grabbed Lucario by the neck and squeezed as hard as he could. Lucario struggled to breath, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. Lucario brought his knee up into his opponents groin, hard. The man cried out and rolled off of Lucario, grabbing at himself.  
Lucario got up slowly. The assassin got up faster and was already upon his enemy. Lucario evaded more punches, backing up, searching for some way to defeat this seemingly unbeatable enemy.  
That's when bullets started exploding through the paper-thin walls, the floor exploding, and one of the assassin's knees getting shot, his leg severed with the shot.  
Lucario ran for it, noticing through the bullet holes that a helicopter with machine guns on each side of the open doors was hovering over the party, slaughtering many.  
Lucario escaped the room and gasped.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Tears Of Blood  
The Ronin Saga Part 3**  
"Gare Seymour?" Miyagi sat back in the plush hotel room, hands folded across his chest. He had been staying here for the past twenty minutes after his escape from the party. He didn't feel like becoming collateral damage. It wouldn't be the way he wanted to die.  
"Yeah." The man wore a suit, he had the broadest shoulders of any man Miyagi had ever seen. His face was, if anything, a puzzle. Literally. His face was held together by stitches, the pieces of skin various colors. He wore a wig over his scalp. His eyes were a dark yellow.  
"You are bigger than I expected." Miyagi smiled and pushed a cup of tea at his new company.  
Gare disregarded it and instead clenched his fists. "I'm heading to a party in a couple of minutes I hear? Gonna crash it?"  
Miyagi nodded. "A good friend of yours is there as you know. A very, very good friend who hasn't seen you in a year."  
Gare smiled disgustingly. "I've missed him."

Lucario stood in a square area that jutted from behind the house, into the ocean. A railing partitioned the square off from the water. But it had nothing to do with his environment that made Lucario gasp and run.  
It was the woman standing in front of Jenny. The woman held a sword, which was impaling Jenny. Jenny was coughing blood, it sputtered from her closed lips. Her eyes held a blank expression. She then turned to Lucario. She looked at him for a second, then smiled, before the sword was pulled from her chest and she dropped to the ground in a heap.  
Lucario ran to her, disregarding the laughing Kishimoto and the woman that stood in front of the Jenny's body.  
"Oh shit..." Lucario shook Jenny. "Fuck...Don't die on me."  
Jenny managed another smile. Blood was pooling around her. "I...love...you..." She managed to mutter before her head lolled toward Lucario. She was limp. Dead.  
Lucario started to cry.  
Tsubaki and Sillindra ran out. Then noticed Lucario, kneeling on the ground, Jenny's dead body over his knees, blood everywhere. They turned away.  
The woman smiled sadistically at the scene. She then twirled her sword, deciding it was time to end the Lucario's life and let him live with his love in the afterlife.  
Tsubaki watched on in terror as the woman held the sword behind her back, preparing a swing that would decapitate her foe.  
"NO!" Tsubaki screamed out. Lucario just sat there as the sword came at his neck.  
And then the sword stopped.  
Lucario held his arm out, the sword embedded in it from the tip to the hilt. The hilt touched his fingers, the sword ended in his shoulder blade. Blood spewed from the huge wound which should have bisected his arm length-wise, but instead stopped, leaving a small scratch.  
Tsubaki watched in awe as the woman pulled the sword from his arm and attempted another attack.  
Lucario was already up and dodged, tears still streaming down his eyes.  
But the tears were being replaced by a shuddering throughout his whole body.  
And that shuddering was replaced by an aura, the darkest aura any of the people on the deck of the house had ever felt.  
And Lucario struck.  
Lucario punched the woman in the face, kicked her in the stomach. She backed against the railing, gasping loudly as Lucario grabbed her head and kicked her legs out from under her, shoving her head into the railing as she fell, so hard that her head split open.  
She screamed as Lucario picked her up and broke one of her legs. Her sword dropped and Lucario grabbed her sword hand and put it, palm up, against the railing. He then punched her fingers, the strike breaking all of them, mangling them.  
She continued her shrill scream as Lucario punched her in the face again, smashing teeth.  
Tsubaki and Sillindra watched the disgusting display. Her body was mangled, fingers pointing everywhere, leg in a disgusting position. Blood was covering her hair, her face was broken.  
The whole time Tsubaki could only watch. But now she looked down at the ground, a tear in her eye. "Please. Stop." She whispered.  
It continued, Lucario punching the assassin woman in the gut. "YOU...FUCKING...WHORE!" He screamed maliciously, in a voice not his own. Almost demonic.  
Tsubaki shuddered. Then she looked up and yelled out. "STOP!"  
Lucario was reeling back a punch when she said this. He instantly stopped his destruction of the woman. The wound she had inflicted suddenly started bleeding worse and hurting. He dropped to the ground, as did the woman, and he cried again.  
The woman tried to stand, seeing the Lucario as nothing but a weakling anymore. She attempted four times to stand before she could. She wobbled toward her sword and picked it up with her good hand. She then wobbled back to Lucario and raised the sword.  
"Don'th call me a whore!" She slurred, blood pushing out between her now jagged teeth. She brought the sword down.  
And then fell forward, the sword clanging behind Lucario, her body landing on his knees. She died of bloodloss, a malicious smile plastered on her face.  
Lucario left her body on his lap. He didn't care. His tears were different now.  
He was crying blood.  
Tsubaki and Sillindra ran to him, but stopped.  
Because Kishimoto stood behind Lucario, a pistol cocked and aimed at his head.  
"Good show. I didn't think you were capable of such, how to put it lightly, malicious murder?"  
Lucario continued crying blood. His face was now plastered with it, his whole body covered in the blood of Jenny and the assassin girl.  
"I knew tonight would be the end of this whole charade with you and your friends Lucario. Or Sean Ratchet. Whichever you prefer. I knew tonight I would have you because I hire only the best. And despite the fact you do have a demon inside you, which was let loose tonight, I still find you to be nothing more than a weakling. Crying over two dead women." Kishimoto looked up. "And you, Tsubaki right? Your call made his demon die down. You have some power over him."  
Tsubaki was crying too. She couldn't help it. Lucario was crying, Jenny was dead.  
"I want to see that demon again. I want to see the true Lucario. And the only way to get that, is to kill her." The pistol was moved from the back of Lucario's head, to be aimed at Tsubaki.  
"Goodnight." Tsubaki closed her eyes as the shot went off.  
And flew over her head.  
Lucario stood, his dark aura back, and had Kishimoto over his back.  
"You won't kill anymore. You won't shoot that pistol anymore. YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Lucario threw Kishimoto to the ground and kicked his head. He then grabbed his head and looked up.  
The helicopter was coming over, having seen their boss in trouble, ready to save him.  
Lucario let the helicopter come close, then threw Kishimoto like he was nothing more than a football. Kishimoto flew into the rotating blades of the chopper, disintegrating into a million pieces. A bloody mist fell down on everyone below.  
The helicopter pilot lost control with the obstruction of the rotors and couldn't land or get away, or even level out. His view was obstructed by the blood as well.  
The helicopter flew into the water and exploded.  
Lucario looked up at Tsubaki. His eyes were different. Tsubaki shied away from him.  
"What happened to you?" Tsubaki asked, staring into his eyes, blood crusting across his entire face, making him look like a demon. She was breaking down, Sillindra beside her, trying to hold her up.  
"I am Lucario." Lucario said hesitantly, the demonic tone still prevalent. "I am...a killer."  
"No!" Tsubaki pushed Sillindra away and grabbed Lucario, hugging him, blood straining her dress. "You're a hero."  
Lucario looked at her. "I couldn't defend her. I couldn't save her." He looked back at Jenny's limp form. "I'M WORTHLESS! SHE DEPENDED ON ME GODDAMN IT!" Lucario was tensing, shaking. Tsubaki kept her embrace of him.  
"Please. Calm down. Don't become...like you were when you killed Kishimoto. Or the assassin. Please."  
"I'm weak without embracing this power." Lucario looked into Tsubaki's eyes. "If I had embraced this before I could have saved her!"  
"If you had embraced this before you would be hated by everyone and considered a murderer! You can't kill like you did, it's disgusting, it's brutal. You aren't a hero when you kill like that, you just prove yourself an evil person like them."  
Lucario slapped her. She reeled back and Sillindra grabbed Lucario's arm. She punched him in the stomach as Tsubaki tried to stop her. Lucario hunched over and then grabbed Sillindra by the neck.  
"DO YOU WANT TO DIE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE?" Lucario screamed, spit flying from his mouth. "ARE YOU REALLY PREPARED TO MEET ASH AND KISHIMOTO IN HELL?"  
Sillindra kicked him in the stomach, her heel meeting his stomach and causing him to fall backward, releasing her, coughing like crazy.  
"What the fuck's your problem?" Sillindra wheezed.  
Lucario stood and looked at her. Through clenched teeth he said, "Your death will be just as brutal as all the others. No one is exempt. If you get in my way..."  
"STOP IT! LUCARIO WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Tsubaki was on the ground, tears cascading down her cheeks in torrents.  
Lucario stopped and looked at her. He suddenly fell forward. His eyes changed, the aura disappeared again. He was shivering, in the fetal position now. "No...no..."  
Tsubaki then noticed a red gleam on his chest. She looked down at her own blue gem in a necklace, her bond to her Pokemon. She then saw that it had cracked.  
And then she understood. Lucario and Jenny had been so close a bond had been forming between them, almost severing Tsubaki's bond with Lucario. Now, the half-bond between himself and Jenny destroyed, he was going crazy. His head was getting screwed up. He was between a dead developing bond and a cracked established bond. It was too much to handle.  
Tsubaki slid toward him. Sillindra tried to grab her arm but Tsubaki shook it off. She hugged Lucario and put her gem against the red glow of his chest. "Please, please just get over this. Please. This is terrible...but don't blame yourself. Please, just bond with me again. Please. It's the only way you can get back in your right mind. Please."  
The glow from both of their gems was brighter than ever before when blood exploded from Tsubaki's back. She screamed out, her eyes glazing over. She curled up, tears streaming all over.  
Sillindra ran to her, a shuriken embedded in her back. "Oh shit..." Sillindra said, looking over the wound.  
Lucario stood and looked over at the man who had thrown it. Two men stood there. Both were the assassins, one with a set of shurikens between his fingers, the other with his sword drawn. Lucario snarled. "You FUCKING PUSSY! CAN'T FIGHT FROM UP FRONT SO KILLS A DEFENSELESS WOMAN WITH HER BACK TURNED TO YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"  
Three shuriken raced toward Lucario, but Lucario's smile was the most menacing thing either assassin's had ever seen. Because in between his teeth were all three shuriken.  
Lucario ran forward, shuriken still in his mouth. The samurai man jumped in front of the ranged fighter and started swiping. Lucario bent backward to block a downward slash with the shuriken in his mouth, kicking the samurai in the side.  
Before the samurai could recover, Lucario had shoved the shuriken into his stomach, all three.  
The samurai cried out as his brother in arms jumped over him and Lucario, landing with a kunai in hand, heading toward Lucario's neck.  
Lucario ducked and grabbed his leg, pulling it so he fell to the ground. Lucario jumped atop him and started slamming his head against the ground, his knee on the man's balls. He screamed.  
The samurai swiped from behind, trying to bisect Lucario.  
But Lucario wasn't there. Instead, the samurai bisected his companion, who screamed as his top half slid off his bottom half, guts and entrails creeping out and sloppily smacking against the ground.  
Lucario stood twenty feet away from the samurai. They squared off, the shuriken still stuck in his stomach, blood collecting around them.  
Lucario looked at Tsubaki and Sillindra. Sillindra was working on extracting the shuriken in her back, fixing the wound.  
Lucario looked back at his opponent.  
Who was falling to the ground, head snapped to one side. Behind him stood another man, six foot tall, face a jigsaw of various colors, stitched together roughly. His shoulders were huge, he wore a suit with a giant overcoat on that almost dragged on the ground.  
"Remember me Lucario?" He asked.  
Lucario knew who he was the second he had seen him.  
Gare Seymour, a man from Team Rocket he had thought he had killed, was standing before him. A man who had survived two fights with Lucario apparently. The last had ended with an aura sphere encompassing his face. Lucario had melted his flesh off, yet he somehow survived and was taken to the hospital fast enough to survive.  
Gare Seymour, one of his toughest enemies the year before. A master in hand to hand combat, even better than the assassin.  
Lucario's eyes were alight, red. He laughed. An insane laugh. His feet were completely submerged in blood, the whole deck having turned into a pool of blood and bodies.  
Tsubaki was awake behind him, gasping, Sillindra trying to pick her up and get her away.  
"No." Tsubaki said. "I have to be here to keep him from going crazy."  
Sillindra nodded and they watched as Lucario, eyes still alight, yet not retaining that dark aura, squared off with Gare.  
"I was hired by Miyagi to take you out in case Kishimoto screwed up. Oddly enough, he did. And here we are. I've been looking for you Lucario. Ever since you destroyed my face, I've been looking. You're an elusive bastard. Finally find out you and that girl over there own a restaurant in a quaint little town. Must be a nice life."  
Lucario continued circling his enemy, not answering.  
"It was a medical miracle I survived. They stitched so many different pieces of synthetic flesh together on my face, I look like a jigsaw puzzle. They gave me a wig. Replaced all my teeth. A portion of my skull is now a metal plate. I'm a completely new person, a freak And it's all thanks to you." His smile was that of someone past the brink of insanity.  
And he ran at Lucario like crazy, fist raised, feet splashing in the pools of blood.

"I am now the official Oyabun of the Johto Yakuza family. And as such, I will appoint my officers and prepare us for the war ahead. I wish of you to dispose the Lucario."  
Father stood in front of Miyagi. He had not shed a tear at the news that his sons and daughter had died, instead the news incited a hearty laugh.  
Now though, he had a mission. He was being paid an amazing sum for his services.  
"I will do so."  
"I'm glad." Miyagi backed away from the table and went into the adjoining room, his plans coming to fruition.

Lucario backed away from Gare's punch, rolled to the side as a vicious kick came at him, ducked under a headbutt.  
His vicious opponent was fast. Lucario was unable to break through his guard and land a hit. For whatever reason, Gare Seymoure had become a tank over the past year. He couldn't have been working out much, his face surgery had to have taken months and months.  
Maybe he had stabilized himself mentally, became a force to be reckoned with using scare tactics.  
And Lucario now understood his power, it came from the fact he was a big, scary guy. But it also came from the fact his movements were so fast, you saw an afterimage, thus you could barely dodge because you were seeing two arms coming at you instead of one.  
Lucario lashed out with his foot, which was caught in midair and snapped to one side. Lucario screamed as he fell to the ground, his foot broken, blood covering his entire back now.  
And Gare Seymoure stomped on his stomach. And then kicked him in the side. And then got down on his knees, one knee on Lucario's neck and punched Lucario in the face. Lucario cried out.

And Tsubaki watched on.  
And ran at Gare, disentangling herself from Sillindra's arms as they attempted to get away.  
"TSUBAKI!" Sillindra cried out.  
Tsubaki had the bloody shuriken in her hand that had been embedded in her back and ran at Gare, jumping on him. Gare hopped up, off Lucario and tried to get Tsubaki off but cried out as the shuriken was rapidly sliced through his face, tearing the skin off, blood flying everywhere. He screamed as one of his eyes were scraped in half, fluid oozing out. His lips were cut in ten places. She cut off one of his ears. Before he could screamed one last time, she shoved the thing in his mouth, cutting off his tongue and tearing his mouth to pieces.  
Gare Seymoure flopped to the ground, dead.  
Tsubaki fell to her knees, and passed out. Blood oozed from her back wound.  
Sillindra ran over.  
And Lucario had passed out, blood cascading from the side of his mouth.

The steady beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.  
The line flew upwards, then fell down, only to fall up again.  
A mask was over Lucario's mouth. An IV was in him. His body had a blanket over it.  
Next to his bed was the bed of Tsubaki, who looked the same as he did. IV, blanket. The beep.  
Nurse Joy stood over them, making sure they were doing alright. Lucario's arm had to be stitched up. His leg was put in a cast. One of his ribs were broken.  
Tsubaki, on the otherhand, was getting stitched up.  
They both were under severe trauma, both from the wounds and pain, and from what had taken place. They were both plagued by nightmares, they were both in shock.  
Sillindra sat between them and wished she could make things better, but she knew there was no possible way. They were both broken, beaten.  
It seemed that it was over.

The funeral was three hours. It seemed like eternity.  
Lucario sat in the car behind the hearse, his eyes dry, his leg in a cast. Tsubaki sat next to him, crying a little. Sillindra sat next to her, no emotion playing across her face.  
After the short procession they were taken to a graveyard and Lucario went behind the hearse to heft the huge black coffin. But he was told not to do so because of his wounds and four men from the funeral services business took it to Jenny's plot and laid it upon the machine that would lower it.  
Lucario sat down in the metal folding chair in front of the plot. A priest stood across from him, as did four police people in their best police uniforms, guns in hand.  
The ceremony was over an hour later. Lucario laid a bouquet of flowers against her grave before disappearing.

"Where's Lucario?" Tsubaki asked.  
"I don't know!" Sillindra replied.  
"He didn't...head away did he?"  
"Why would he do that?"  
"He was muttering in his sleep at the hospital. He's sick of people around him dying. He...wanted to leave." Tsubaki headed toward the parking lot. "I've got to find him!"  
Sillindra followed.

Lucario was in a forest, laying in a tree. He laid back and slept.  
"Goodbye." He said to the sky before sleep hit him.

**TO BE CONTINUED IN POKEWARS: LIGHT**


End file.
